Over the last two decades, universal health coverage (UHC) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) increased by 60%. This has led to a 25% reduction in healthcare inequalities between LMICs and high-income countries. But high-income countries still outperform LMICs by 22 percentage points, and the world is off track to meet the goal of achieving UHC by 2030.

LMICs are not only ageing fast, but they’re doing so at a quicker rate than high-income countries. The number of older people will rise to 2.1 billion globally by 2050 – more than double the current figure – and 80% of these older people will reside in LMICs. It is impossible to make any meaningful progress on UHC without building adequate, resilient health systems that are prepared for, and respond to, the needs of ageing populations.

Older adults are left out of policy discussions, but we need governments to commit to identifying the challenges to achieving UHC that arise from demographic change, and embedding solutions that will address them.

We have outlined three key solutions for improving UHC for all, at all ages:

1. Invest in national health schemes to strengthen and expand the provision of healthcare and prevent catastrophic out-of-pocket spending on health.
2. Position primary healthcare as the cornerstone of UHC
3. Build a data-driven, life course approach to UHC

Through this programme of work, we have produced two reports:

• One report on UHC in LMICs, which:
  • Uses our Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index to build evidence and raise awareness on the importance of improving health in LMICs as populations age
  • Presents findings from focus group interviews, conducted by HelpAge International, of 125 older people from Mongolia, Rwanda and Zambia
  • Reports on two policy roundtables with regional experts from Africa and Asia, and a global policy forum at the 79th UN General Assembly
  • Showcases examples of good practice across six LMICs – Mongolia, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Vietnam and Zambia – to demonstrate the value of UHC and identify scalable interventions
• One report in partnership with HelpAge International, which examines the focus group discussions from Mongolia, Rwanda and Zambia in more detail

Both can be downloaded using the buttons below.