All roads lead to Universal Health Coverage – and women will deliver it

“…the key question of universal health coverage is an ethical one. Do we want our fellow citizens to die because they are poor? Or millions of families impoverished by catastrophic health expenditures because they lack financial risk protection? Universal health coverage is a human right” – Dr Tedros Adhanom, DG WHO (1)

3. Women and men have different health needs based on biology: UHC is based on the principle that people should receive health care according to their health needs. Individuals will have different health needs throughout their life cycle with children, women of reproductive age and older people generally needing more health services than other age groups. Clearly, there are differences between men and women in health and disease patterns with certain diseases such as cervical and prostate cancers being specific to one sex.  But the most significant difference between the sexes is women’s greater need for health care related to pregnancy and childbirth. UHC applies to everyone but does not mean treating all people the same.

“girls and women’s health and rights are more than a measure for progress on UHC. They are a prerequisite.”  – Iversen and Myers (5)

4. Gender based determinants of health: Each gender plays different roles in society and are subject to different gender norms that impact their health. Large numbers of women and girls, for example, are subject to harmful cultural practices in some countries that seriously damage their physical and mental health.  These practices include and are not limited to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting seclusion, menstruation taboos and early pregnancies following early forced marriage (6-7). Adolescent deaths rates are higher for boys than girls, with higher mortality related to interpersonal violence and road injuries (8).  A transgender woman is 49 times more likely to be living with HIV than other genders of reproductive age. (9) Prevention of the gender based drivers of ill health lie largely outside the health sector and must be addressed in context for successful implementation of UHC.

5. UHC includes prevention and health promotion which are driven by both gender and biological sex. The most fundamental example of health prevention based on biological sex is the impact of the health of a mother on the health of the fetus, particularly in the ‘first 1,000 days’. Health is a human right for women, as it is for all other people but in addition, investment in better health for girls and women of reproductive age will impact positively on the health of children they bear. Many, including the Elders (10) argue that UHC therefore must start with primary care services aimed at the poorest women, children and adolescents. And beyond biology, genders play different roles in health promotion and prevention within their families and communities. As NCDs receive more attention in global health, obesity and overweight affecting around 2 billion people globally, is an urgent priority for action. Mothers are important decision makers in the nutrition of their families. Women may also play a critical role in health promotion, often informal or as volunteers, in their communities. Decision makers implementing UHC need to understand the different roles that genders currently plays and can play in health prevention and promotion.

6. UHC applies to all people everywhere including those affected by conflict and emergencies: All genders have different roles and unique health and security needs in emergencies. Although men are more likely to be injured or die during armed conflict as combatants, women are more likely to experience the harm and lasting trauma of sexual violence and unwanted pregnancy. Vulnerability continues for women and girls even when they reach the ‘safety’ of refugee camps. Pregnant women in forced migrations are particularly vulnerable to unsafe delivery and maternal death. There are also gendered differences in non-conflict related emergencies with more women than men, for example, dying in floods because they cannot swim.

7. Women are the majority of the global health workforce but men hold the majority of senior roles: Globally, women in the health workforce provide health care for over 5 billion people. To achieve UHC and SDGs projections estimate around 40 million new health and social care jobs globally will be needed by 2030, and an additional 18 million health workers will be needed, primarily in low income countries. In many countries women hold over 70% of jobs in the health sector (11) but are greatly underrepresented in senior and decision-making roles and over represented in lower ranking, less well-paid jobs and sectors. An investment in UHC means an investment in women in the health workforce. Governments will need to ensure decent working conditions, particularly for frontline women health workers at community level, who are often the backbone of the health system but also often underpaid and marginalized within it. Priority must be given to ensuring safe conditions for health workers and to working conditions that enable all health workers, regardless of gender, to achieve work-life integration. Effective health systems will ensure gender parity at all levels of decision making to harness women’s perspectives and talent.  Women currently make an essential contribution to delivering global health and will be equally essential to delivering UHC. This will not happen, however, unless women are fully recognized as drivers of change in global health, and not only as beneficiaries.

8. Women provide the majority of unpaid care globally: Per the Women and Health Lancet commission “Women provide over $3 trillion in care with nearly half of that is uncompensated care each year to their families and communities” (12). Much of this care for children, the disabled, older people and community members is unrecorded. We have no clear picture of women’s unpaid contribution to health care globally. The burden of this care may fall on girls and interrupt their schooling and future economic opportunities. Similarly, this burden of unpaid care work can keep women in poverty because they are unable to take paid work. Countries implementing UHC must recognize and address the unpaid health care work performed by all genders. It has implications for individuals but also has major negative impacts upon the economy and economic growth.

9. UHC is a political decision but only 23.5% of parliamentarians are women: UHC in itself is no guarantee of quality care or gender equity. Who has access to health coverage and the package of services offered will be politically driven by decisions taken in parliaments. Currently, women hold less than one quarter of seats in parliaments globally (13), ranging from 61.3% in Rwanda to 0% in Qatar, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Yemen.  In the majority of the world therefore life and death decisions about UHC and the health coverage of all genders are being decided overwhelmingly by men. This is not only inequitable, it is very likely to bias the coverage offered and who it reaches. We can assume that diverse, gender equal parliaments would make different decisions on UHC if all voices were equal. The voices of women are needed in health decision making at all levels, from planning and monitoring at community level to parliaments.

“By creating pathways for more women to hold seats in government and voice their concerns in the civic sphere, countries can ensure that gender equality is ever-present in policy negotiations.’’ – Iversen and Myers (5)​

10. UHC brings major social change: UHC, when introduced effectively, will even up life chances between genders, between rich and poor women in the same society, and between women living in rich and poor countries. The clearest example will be elimination of the scandalously high and preventable maternal deaths in some countries. Where effectively and equitably implemented, UHC will have a particularly positive impact on the health and lives of the most vulnerable women and girls. As yet, we can only estimate the positive social, economic and political spin offs from such a radical change.