International Universal Health Coverage Day is a holiday that urges all countries to work towards providing their citizens with universal health coverage (UHC). According to the latest research, there are 43 countries in the world that don’t offer their citizens UHC and one of those countries is the United States.

Fortunately, more and more countries are working towards a universal health coverage solution and over the next few years, the list of countries that don’t provide UHC is going to become short indeed.

Quality, affordable health care allows individuals to lead productive and fulfilling lives and do so without the risk of becoming bankrupt in the process. Countries that have universal health care also tend to have stronger economies than ones that don’t have them. All good reasons for people to observe this holiday when it comes around on December 12th.

The History Of International Universal Health Coverage Day

This holiday was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 to encourage all member nations to work towards developing universal health coverage for their citizens.

Every year, millions of people in the world die because they don’t have adequate health coverage. And more than 46,000 of these people are Americans who lack even basic health insurance.

Some Quick Facts About Healthcare

Let’s go over a few quick facts about healthcare so that we can underline its importance and show why everyone in the world should be afforded at least basic healthcare in some form. After we go over the following facts, we’ll then proceed to talk about how Universal Health Coverage Day is observed.

• Approximately 25% of Americans throw away their prescriptions because they can afford to have them filled.
• The amount Americans spend on healthcare dwarfs the combined profits of every American corporation.
• The United States spends more money on healthcare than any other industrialized country in the world.
• In 2021, approximately $12,318 was spent on each American, on average.

Observing Universal Health Coverage Day

On this day, it’s up to the citizens of their respective countries to lobby their politicians and advocate for universal health care. Health care is a basic human right, yet too many people in the world have to go without it.

But this can be changed if citizens band together and demand that their human rights be taken seriously and that their country should start providing universal health coverage.

We also encourage everyone to spread the word about this holiday using the hashtag #UniversalHealthCoverageDay. After all, the more citizens who are advocating for UHC, the more likely they are to make it a reality.