A virtual convening to mark the UHC day

A virtual convening to mark the UHC day

Date: 12 December 2025

Time and duration: 2 PM (New Delhi), 60 minutes Venue: Virtual (Zoom)

Description

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day on 12 December is the annual rallying point for the global movement for health for all. It marks the anniversary of the United Nations’ historic and unanimous endorsement of UHC in 2012.

This year’s theme, "Unaffordable health costs? We’re sick of it!" reflects widespread discontent and a fundamental moral imperative: financial protection is not optional but constitutes a core pillar of UHC, as well as a prerequisite for sustained social and economic progress. It underscores the human realities underlying these statistics, reminding government decision-makers that unaffordable health expenditures are impoverishing communities, exacerbating poor health and impeding progress across the full spectrum of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Countries in the WHO South-East Asia have demonstrated commitments, often accompanied with bold reforms, and recorded notable progress to advance financial protection in health. The proportion of the population spending more than 40% of their household discretionary budget on health out-of-pocket consistently decreased from 38.4% in 2010 to 34.7% in 2015, reaching 30.9% in 2022.

However, the pace of progress has not been fast enough to achieve the minimum essential global UHC targets by 2030, nor meet the regional and country aspirations. The proportion of the population incurring large but not impoverishing OOP health spending continued to rise from 6.7% in 2010 to 8.6% in 2022, with continued deterioration in financial hardship for the lowest consumption quintiles. This reflects the continued detrimental impact of out-of-pocket expenditures across a wide cross-section of the population in our countries, impeding UHC progress. Our country-level analyses reveal that a significant proportion of households in South-East Asia face financial hardship due to high out-of-pocket expenditures on medicines and outpatient care, with the burden most acute among poorer and rural populations.

This virtual event commemorating UHC Day serves both as a celebration of achievements and a reflection on ongoing challenges. It provides a platform to examine the pressing issues and challenges, facilitate dialogue and awareness, and garner renewed commitment to improve financial protection in health, to advance progress towards UHC.

Register via the link below or by scanning the QR code.

https://who.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VcK6S3HKQHaF2Jpv4ZyLeQ