LIST OF PANELS

The literature on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) addresses various themes: access to essential health care, population coverage, the package of benefits to which the population is entitled, protection from the economic and social consequences of illness [Stuckler et al. 2010]. All these themes can be analyzed from different theoretical and empirical perspectives. Therefore, UHC ends up being a concept that is not only multidimensional but also multidisciplinary.
 
Over the last fifteen years, authoritative international bodies, including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the OECD and the European Commission, have officially committed to achieving universal health coverage [WHO 2010; United Nations 2015; European Commission 2017]. In line with this commitment, many national governments – across the continents – have promoted reforms to expand health insurance coverage or to make it more generous [Lagomarsino et al. 2012; Boerma et al. 2014; Cotlear et al. 2015; Dmytraczenko and Almeida 2015].
 
Universal coverage can be pursued by different paths and through many diverse health financing arrangements [Savedoff et al. 2012] and fully achieving UHC is all but impossible for any country [Kutzin 2013]. All national governments face trade-offs and must make choices regarding different elements of ‘health coverage’ [WHO 2010]: the proportion of the population covered; the range of services to be made available; the share of the total costs the individual patients have to pay (user charges).
Moreover, plenty of evidence shows the importance of addressing a wide range of different social determinants of health in order to improve access to health services and the overall health status of the population.
 
The proposed panel will provide an opportunity to discuss the various facets and dimensions of UHC, both as empirical studies as well as theoretical studies. The panel especially welcomes papers with a comparative perspective, in order to discuss if and how different countries could learn from each other and to offer a contribution to the policy, societal and academic debates concerning health systems developments in their path towards universal health coverage. Papers focused on both developed and developing countries are welcome.
 

References:
- Boerma T, Eozenou P, Evans D, Evans T, Kieny MP, Wagstaff A. Monitoring Progress towards Universal Health Coverage at Country and Global Levels. PLoS Med. 2014; 11:1-8.
- Cotlear D, Nagpal S, Smith O, Tandon A,  Cortez R. Going Universal: How 24 Developing Countries Are Implementing Universal Health Coverage Reforms from the Bottom Up. Washington, DC: The World Bank; 2015.
- Dmytraczenko T, Almeida G. Toward Universal Health Coverage and Equity in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington, DC: The World Bank; 2015.
- European Commission. European Pillar of Social Rights. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union; 2017.
- Kutzin J. Health financing for universal coverage and health system performance: concepts and implications for policy. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 2013; 91: 602-11.
- Lagomarsino G, Garabrant A, Adyas A, Muga R,  Otoo N. Moving towards universal health coverage. Health insurance reforms in nine developing countries in Africa and Asia. The Lancet. 2012; 380:933-43.
- Savedoff WD, de Ferranti D, Smith AL, Fan V. Political and economic aspects of the transition to universal health coverage. The Lancet. 2012; 380: 924-32.
- Stuckler D, Feigl AB, Basu S, McKee M. The political economy of universal health coverage. Montreux: First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research; 2010.
- United Nations. Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New York: Resolution adopted by the General assembly; 2015
- WHO (2010), Health systems financing: the path to universal coverage, Geneva: World Health Organization.

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a multidimensional and multidisciplinary concept, that could be mainly investigated taking into account three distinct dimensions: the breadth (who is covered), depth (what services are covered), and height (what proportion of cost is covered) of coverage.
The theoretical and empirical goal of the panel is to investigate these key dimensions of UHC, in order to both clarify this concept and to discuss different approaches and initiatives put in place to achieve it.
 
In recent years, many national governments have adopted reforms aimed at extending and improving health coverage for their population. In some countries, insurance coverage has been extended to individuals who previously lacked it. In other countries, it was decided to expand the basic package of health care services available, while in other countries reforms were intended to facilitate access to services and to improve the quality of the services provided.
Given though the many challenges that still many countries have to face in order to fully reach this goal, this panel is aimed at addressing issues like:
What is the impact of  recent reforms? To what extent have they have made health coverage more universal? How to better engage different stakeholders within this process? How to engage people from different sectors in developing effective policies?
 
The panel provides an opportunity to discuss all these issues from both a theoretical and empirical perspective and to share experiences from different countries from a comparative perspective.