Following his work with the World Health Organisation, Alex Voorhoeve offers further guidance on the path to universal health coverage in this brand new article in The Lancet.

Alex Voorhoeve served as a member of the World Health Organisation’s Consultative Group on Equity and Universal Health Coverage. The group offered guidance to countries setting out on the path to universal health coverage and outlined principles via which the difficult choices that arise along the way can be approached equitably. Their final report, Making fair choices on the path to universal health coverage, was published in 2014.

Since the publication of their report, members of the group have continued their work in offering ethical and practical guidance to policy-makers. In this new article in The Lancet, Alex Voorhoeve joins a group of authors in exploring the relationship between universal health coverage, priority setting and the right to health.

Some have argued that recognising each individual’s right to health is in tension with the aim of setting national spending priorities fairly and efficiently. However, Voorhoeve and his co-authors argue that, properly interpreted, the right to health and fair priority setting are complementary; indeed, setting priorities equitably is required in order to secure people’s rights to health, and individuals’ rights help explain why states have an obligation to ensure that their health needs can be met in a fair manner.

 

Further information about Dr Voorhoeve’s work with the WHO is available on our Current Research Projects pages. You can also read more about the project on the LSE Philosophy Blog.