Article originally published on World Bank website.
The expansion of universal health coverage is critical: According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank Group, 400 million people do not have access to essential health services and 6% of people in low- and middle-income countries are tipped into or pushed further into extreme poverty because of out-of-pocket health spending. The World Bank report, Going Universal: How 24 countries are implementing universal health coverage reforms from the bottom up, looks at how 24 countries have embarked on the path to universal health coverage and are expanding coverage to the poor—who too often get much less from their health systems than the better-off. Continue reading