The COVID-19 pandemic was a turning point for today’s society. It highlighted that regardless of all our technological advances, we are still vulnerable to health threats. It made clear that health considerations need to be present in all political decisions because, indeed, health has a tremendous impact on society and is also affected by numerous other circumstances. As such, health topics gained considerable momentum since the pandemic hit. However, it is now key to ensure that that energy is not lost or scattered across different priorities and events that may come up in the meantime. 

Sustaining this drive will be essential. In that sense, 2023 will be pivotal to ensure political engagement. The upcoming United Nations’ (UN) General Assembly in September 2023 and the associated High-Level Meetings on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, Tuberculosis, and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) will represent the apex of this impetus at global level. However, action is needed also at ground-level. As Tip O’Neill, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said: “All politics is local”.

It is with that in mind that UNITE and UHC2030 (the global movement to build stronger health systems for Universal Health Coverage) have jointly signed a letter calling on all Members of Parliament (MPs) to secure health high on their country’s political agenda. UNITE and UHC 2030 are asking MPs to guarantee health is legally or constitutionally recognized as a universal human right, and for them to champion the strengthening of national health systems. 

UNITE and UHC 2030 have the common goal of reaching full implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular, SDG 3 “Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages” which both organisations see as a key enabler of the 2030 Agenda. 

A major part of achieving this objective is ensuring UHC, meaning that everyone, everywhere, has access to the health services they need without the risk of falling into poverty. Therefore, the political declarations coming out of the UN HLMs will be a crucial tool to help guide national governments along the process of establishing such a system. But UHC2030 has also already established a set of measures in their UHC Action Agenda, which can support countries in implementing healthcare for all. Among these are the requests highlighted in the joint letter: 

• Increase and stabilize levels of public spending on health to make health systems more resilient and equitable. 
• Ensure that all national health policy frameworks address the health needs of all people, with special attention to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, throughout their life course, particularly women and girls. 
• Implement policies, laws and regulations and budget for the necessary financing for a comprehensive essential health benefits package, financial protection, primary health care and integrated services to support UHC and health security.
• Apply robust planning and financing to retain, expand, and protect the health and care workforce. 
• Institutionalize mechanisms for inclusive health governance and adopt policy frameworks that enable and resource social participation. 

The progress towards UHC has been significantly damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and we need a strong political will to set progress back on track. We need to strengthen our health systems, particularly by ensuring inclusive, equitable and cost-effective primary health care services, to be able to ensure UHC.

UNITE is fully aligned with this perspective and urges all its members to show leadership in the topic of UHC and push their colleagues and governments to join this movement. Without health we cannot thrive as a community, and we will not have health until all of us have it.

As always, UNITE is at the disposal of our members to support them however necessary.