title: Universal health coverage: necessary but not sufficient.
abstract: In this article, we highlight key considerations for better addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights issues within universal health coverage (UHC), particularly in the context of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. We look at UHC as a health, development and health care financing issue, and its history. We discuss its limitations as currently understood from a human rights perspective, and show why structural barriers to health and the legal and policy environment, which are essential to health (particularly to sexual and reproductive health and rights), require critical consideration in current discussions about health in the post-2015 development framework and must be taken into account above and beyond UHC in any future health goal. As a result, we suggest that UHC alone will not result in universal access to sexual and reproductive health, and certainly not to sexual and reproductive rights. Instead, it should be considered as a means to achieving broader health and development goals. A goal such as seeking to reach the highest attainable standard of health or maximizing healthy lives that is informed by a rights-based approach should be the aspiration for the post-2015 development agenda.
authors: Deputy Cluster Leader and Senior Gender, HIV and Health Advisor, Mainstreaming, Gender and the MDGs, HIV, Health and Development Group, Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: susana.fried@undp.org.
authors: Susana T
authors: ST
authors: Fried
authors: Atif
authors: A
authors: Khurshid
authors: Dudley
authors: D
authors: Tarlton
authors: Douglas
authors: D
authors: Webb
authors: Sonia
authors: S
authors: Gloss
authors: Claudia
authors: C
authors: Paz
authors: Tamara
authors: T
authors: Stanley
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006040:Goals; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D060728:Reproductive Health; D046269:Reproductive Rights; D019472:Universal Health Insurance
keywords: development policy framework; health care financing; human rights; sexual and reproductive health and rights; sustainable development goals; universal health coverage