Reducing Mortality within Universal Health Coverage: The DCP3 Model

Authors: David Watkins, Ole Norheim, Prabhat Jha, Dean Jamison

Introduction:

For countries seeking to move towards universal health coverage (UHC), a fundamental challenge is identifying which health interventions should receive priority for public finance. This issue is especially important in highly resource-constrained low-income (LI) and lower middle-income (LMI) countries where coverage of potentially cost-effective interventions is often low, and the investments needed to achieve UHC very large. Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3) has proposed a concrete notion of UHC that could be affordable and feasible in LI and LMI countries. Volume 9, Chapter 3, of DCP3, entitled “Universal Health Coverage and Essential Packages of Care,” draws on the content of 21 packages of essential health interventions contained in DCP3 and synthesizes them into a model health benefits package, termed “essential UHC” (EUHC). A subset of these interventions have been distilled into a “highest-priority UHC package” (HPP) that is designed to address the specific health needs of – and be feasible to implement in – LI countries by the end of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) period in 2030.