Figure 7.12: Towards Health Urbanism: Inclusive Equitable Sustainable (THRIVES) framework

Figure 7.12 Towards Health Urbanism: Inclusive Equitable Sustainable (THRIVES) framework

Source: Pineo, 2020.

In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, the value of social protection systems was demonstrated in not only supporting the most vulnerable but also reinforcing the collective health and well-being for all.

Even before COVID-19, countries struggled in expanding access to universal health coverage; there were already rising levels of catastrophic health expenditure (i.e., when households spend over 10 per cent of their budgets on health).123 From 2015–2017, households with catastrophic health expenditures rose from 940 million to 996 million. The elderly and people with intergenerational households typically have the highest incidence of catastrophic health spending; medicines are usually a key driver of out-of-pocket spending and financial hardship.

Although strategies to expand universal health coverage will depend on local contexts, politics and financial considerations, a range of promising approaches have demonstrated how to leave no one behind including strong political commitment and the use of general tax revenue in Thailand and Mexico; making pregnant women universally eligible in Ghana; leveraging co-operative societies as intermediaries for informal workers in India; and providing subsidies to informal workers, schoolchildren, ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups in Viet Nam.124