1 August 2022 - This is the first in a series of five articles in which Michael Settas will provide readers with the critically important distinction between universal health coverage (a policy objective) and the proposed National Health Insurance (a financing mechanism).
It is entrenched as a fundamental human right in the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. There has recently been a subtle and little-noticed shift in the discourse around universal health care towards framing it as Universal Health Coverage, including in the language of documents.
Framing the fundamental human right to healthcare as insurance cover opens it up to exploitation. Dr Louis Reynolds from the People’s Health Movement of South Africa explains.