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Case Studies Of Mexico And Rwanda

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The Achievability of Universal Healthcare Coverage Case Studies of Mexico and Rwanda In this paper I use a case-study approach to discuss the feasibility of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in low and middle-income countries. First, I define UHC and contextualize it within the goals of a health system. Then, I describe healthcare reforms aimed at achieving UHC in one middle-income country—Mexico—and one low-income country—Rwanda. Through these descriptions, I attempt to identify common patterns that promote UHC by analyzing three dimensions of healthcare reform: the contextual factors; the health services design, implementation, and evaluation; and the financing. Defining Health System Goals and Universal Health Coverage There are many different frameworks to define the purpose of a health system, many of which contain very similar concepts.1 For purposes of this paper, I use the health system goals described by Murray and Frenk.2 Murray and Frenk define three intrinsic goals of a healthcare system: 1) health, 2) responsiveness (respect for persons and client satisfaction), and 3) fair financing.2 For these goals, both averages and distributions are important.2,3 For example, it is not enough for a healthcare system if the average health of a population is good, but the level of health is poor in some subpopulations. The goal of the healthcare system is also equal distribution of health outcomes. UHC is an approach by which a healthcare system may achieve the goals

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