Nursing students being trained in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Nurses are vital for UHC as they deliver essential care, especially in primary and community settings where they are often the first point of contact.
Nugroho Nurdikiawan Sunjoyo / World Bank
Despite numerous high-level political commitments to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030, more than half of the world’s population still lacks access to essential health services. One in four people face financial hardship when paying for health care out of their own pockets—often at the expense of basic needs such as food, education or housing.
To draw attention to this plight, the campaign for UHC Day 2025 carries the theme: Unaffordable health costs? We’re sick of it!
Healthier populations foster communities that are more resilient, productive, peaceful, and prosperous. When people delay or forgo health care due to costs, they risk worsening health outcomes and longer-term health and financial burden. Conversely, when governments prioritize to ensure people have access to affordable health care, they lay the groundwork for sustainable progress across all sectors.
For hundreds of millions of people in the world, access to health care remains unaffordable. The 2025 UHC Day campaign advocates for them by calling on governments to take immediate, tangible actions to eliminate out-of-pocket health costs plaguing people who cannot afford them. Advance UHC support ensures policy makers in its priority countries have access to quality health financing data and analytics, so they are in a strong position to develop and implement policies that promote financial protection for their constituents. UHC Day is celebrated annually on 12 December to mark the United Nations’ historic and unanimous endorsement of universal health coverage on that day in 2012.
