Title: 'Universal Health Care Coverage, Solution or Siren? Some preliminary thoughts?'
Abstract:
In recent years, there has been a growing groundswell of support for the idea that universal health coverage should be provided even in the developing world. While I wholeheartedly agree with the eventual goal of attaining universal health coverage globally, and the sooner the better, I have worries as to whether the world’s rich countries, or institutions like the World Health Organization, should be pushing the world’s poorest countries to take whatever steps are necessary to achieve that goal. My fear is that universal health coverage in the developing world is an intoxicating, but potentially dangerous, idea whose time may not yet have come. This talk’s aim is not to settle the question of whether the developing world should be urged, or pushed, to adopt policies of universal health coverage. It is merely to explore some worries about the wisdom of such a tack.
Convenors: Hillary Greaves and Michelle Hutchinson
