Formalizing political commitment by making effective laws for universal health coverage

Overview

The United Nations General Assembly has underscored the crucial importance of legislative and regulatory frameworks for universal health coverage (UHC). Such laws have the potential to advance UHC by institutionalizing and giving binding force to arrangements, enabling everyone to access quality and affordable health services. However, as much as good laws enable progress towards UHC, bad laws will hamper countries’ progress by including discriminatory provisions, or by failing to install effective mechanisms to monitor performance and ensure accountability. To deliver on their commitment for UHC, countries must therefore assess the quality of their laws for UHC and, where needed, undertake relevant legal reforms.