Achieving Universal Health Coverage: The Way Forward

Despite being the core of health policy for a long time, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is still a distant goal in India. The major hindrance to achieving UHC is rooted in scant funding from both the Central and State governments to health sector. This has ultimately resulted in lack of health infrastructure and skilled health workers, poor quality of healthcare services, unequal access to healthcare and essential medicines across social and economic groups and regions, and has made healthcare unaffordable and inaccessible to a larger section of population. Addressing these problems simultaneously through a concerted effort can make the promise of universal access to healthcare a reality. First and foremost priority must be given by both the Center and States on increasing resources to the health sector, which itself will solve aforementioned problems of the health sector.