Experience "A Toast to Universal Health Coverage [10]" (#ToastUHC [11]) through photos and tweets in this Storify story [12]@MSHHealthImpact [13]. (Storify is a social media tool for curating digital content, such as photos, videos, links, and tweets.) You can also view the complete Photo album: " [14]#ToastUHC [11] Photo Booth" on Facebook. (Share and tag these photos via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or your favorite social media channel, using hashtag #ToastUHC [11].)

Universal health coverage (UHC) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are high priorities in global health—just look at the proposed post-2015 development goals. The increasing burden of NCDs is widely recognised, and a growing list of countries have joined the UHC movement. But what’s less widely understood is why a UHC approach is necessary for an effective NCD response.

Cross-posted with permission from The Wilson Center’s NewSecurityBeat.org [21].

The global maternal health agenda has been largely defined by the Millennium Development Goals [22] (MDGs) for the last decade and half, but what will happen after they expire in 2015? What kind of framework is needed to continue the momentum towards eliminating preventable maternal deaths and morbidities? [Video Below]

For a panel of experts gathered at the Wilson Center on February 20 [23], universal health coverage is a powerful mechanism that may be crucial to finishing the job.

Last month, I joined over 1,800 participants from more than 100 countries in Beijing at the Second Global Symposium on Health Systems Research [27]. We've made some concrete steps forward since we last met in Montreux, Switzerland, two years ago, among them the launch of a new research society Health Systems Global [28]. Central topics of this year's discussions included: “Inclusion and Innovation towards Universal Health Coverage” (UHC), the symposium theme, and monitoring and evaluation.

Co-authored by Gina Lagomarsino, managing director for Results for Development Institute

Cross-posted on UHC Forward [31].

We welcome the United States Supreme Court decision to uphold President Obama’s sweeping health care overhaul. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires all Americans to have health insurance, which will dramatically increase both equitable access and the health of Americans.

It also adds the US to the growing list of countries on the path to universal health coverage.

US Affordable Care Act a good step forward

We have learned that countries must create systems that reflect their history and their current realities. In the US, this means improving upon a system dominated by private insurers that historically have been able to provide subjective and selective coverage – denying coverage or charging exorbitant premiums to those most in need.

To provide health care coverage for all in the US, it was critical that the ACA accomplish the following goals:

A child born in Ghana today will most likely receive a full schedule of immunizations, and her chances of surviving past the age of five are far better than they were a decade ago. Today Ghana boasts a coverage rate for infant vaccination [34] of 90 percent and hasn’t seen an infant die of measles since 2003.

Ghana has been expanding primary health care by bringing services to people’s doorsteps since the 1980s, and since the early 2000s has done so in the context of a commitment to universal health coverage. The secret to its success in child immunization has been both integration and decentralization of health services: Government funding for all health activities is provided through a "common pot." District-level managers are responsible for local budgeting and service delivery. Local staff provide comprehensive rather than specialized care.

Ghana is one of a growing number of low- and middle-income countries demonstrating that strong performance in immunization can go hand-in-hand with the aspiration of universal health coverage, access for all to appropriate health services at an affordable cost.