Ayushman bharat and road to universal health coverage in India

Abstract

The World Health Organization defines universal health coverage (UHC) as means to enable all people and communities to use promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship. It embodies three objectives: equity in access, quality, and financial risk protection.[1] The UHC movement received more impetus after it was included as one of the targets of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals‐3 (SDG‐3) in 2015.[2] Many low‐ and middle‐income countries have started special programs, mainly different kind of health financing and insurance schemes in aspiration to move toward UHC.