What is Universal Health Coverage?

The World Health Organisation defines Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as a situation where all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. UHC is a central piece of the Sustainable Development Goals and, in 2015, all UN Member States committed to achieving it by 2030. Despite global commitments, half of the world’s population does not yet have full coverage of essential health services at an affordable price.

Why is UHC important for people with diabetes?

Diabetes is a condition that requires lifelong management. Without UHC, people with diabetes can face catastrophic health expenditures and impoverishment as a result of the medical expenses incurred to manage their condition effectively to avoid or delay complications.

IDF call to action on occasion of the UN HLM on UHC

The United Nations (UN) hosted a High Level Meeting (HLM) on UHC on September 23, 2019, to mobilise the highest political support for UHC and adopted a political declaration with milestones for the achievement of UHC by 2030. On occasion of this important meeting, IDF urged global leaders to leave no one behind and ensure all people with diabetes have access to essential care and medicines at an affordable price. Click on the links to download the call to action in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Kirundi. In the run-up to the HLM, IDF run a UHC selfie campaign on social media to highlight the cost of essential diabetes care around the world. You can find all the #UHC selfies in our Flickr gallery. In addition to selfies, some members of the IDF network recorded advocacy videos on why UHC is important for people with diabetes.

ACCESS ALL #UHCSELFIES		WATCH ALL #UHCVIDEOS

As part of the HLM on UHC campaign, IDF also launched a monthly diabetes expenditure calculator - which calculates diabetes expenditure from other currencies into US dollars and the percentage of Gross National Income per capita the expenditure represents.