TEHRAN – “Build the world we want: A healthy future for all” is the theme of the Universal Health Coverage Day to ensure everyone everywhere has access to quality healthcare without suffering financial hardship.

Each year on 12 December, Universal Health Coverage Day marks the date to call on leaders to make smarter investments and accelerate efforts towards “Health for All”. 

Universal health coverage (UHC) lifts people out of poverty, promotes the well-being of families and communities, protects against public health crises, and moves us toward health for all. This year’s theme emphasizes that in order to build strong health systems we need equity, trust, healthy environments, investments, and accountability.

UHC Day is an opportunity to celebrate progress and raise awareness for what is required to deliver essential health care for families and communities everywhere.

In the past two decades, the UHC service coverage index in the Western Pacific Region, which marks progress in increasing access to essential health services, has increased from 49 in 2000 to 80 in 2019. However, inequities in service coverage and financial hardship exist in many countries, especially among vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations.

Iran’s measures towards UHC

Iran’s universal public health insurance scheme, known as Salamat Health Insurance, covers hospitalization, para-clinical and outpatient services, including doctor’s visits, radiology, lab tests, and medication costs at any public hospital affiliated with the Ministry of Health.

Iran has taken steps to provide health coverage for the whole population, in addition to the refugees. Even during the outbreak of the coronavirus, the country has provided treatment services and vaccination to foreign nationals just like Iranians.

Each year on 12 December, Universal Health Coverage Day marks the date to call on leaders to make smarter investments and accelerate efforts towards “Health for All”. Some 170,000 refugees residing in Iran are now covered by health insurance, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Iran has also gone far to establish a Primary Health Care (PHC) system in 1981, now covering a population of approximately 82 million rural and urban residents, which is considered a great step towards universal health coverage, Mohammad Hossein Nicknam, Immunologist in Tehran University of Medical Sciences, told the Tehran Times in 2020.

“Currently, over 17,800 Health Houses are providing services to 28 million villagers nationwide, with a workforce of 31,000, he highlighted, adding, 6,642 family physicians and 5,852 rural midwives are working in 2,794 comprehensive rural health care centers.

Therefore, 98 percent of the country’s rural population is covered by the PHC system,” he noted.

Pointing out that 93 percent of the urban residents are covered by the health networks in the country, he said that 3,987 physicians and 1,2032 health care providers (dentists, nurses, midwives, and health professionals in the fields of environmental health, nutrition, mental health, etc.) provide services to 54 million people,” he also explained.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said that “easy access to healthcare services along with lowering public spending on healthcare services are the two main requirements of an efficient health network, as emphasized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its 2008 report.

Ensuring universal health coverage (UHC) without impoverishment is the foundation for achieving the health objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); so the WHO has set a theme of “Health for all” for two years.

Although UHC was at the center of attention, PHC was the path to its achievement.”

Principles of the PHC network in the country are fully in line with the recommendations of WHO, he stated, highlighting, WHO experts consider Iran’s PHC system as a good model for other countries to follow.

On many different occasions, authorities and experts of WHO and other health-related agencies have admired our PHC system, he further added.

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