EPF Campaign on Universal Health Coverage - #Access2030
©EPF
Just a few weeks before the official start of our campaign on Universal Health Coverage! Time to uncover the main policy focuses of the campaign, as well as the official logo and hashtag.
The alarming figures from the latest report from the Commission and the OECD ‘Health at Glance’, showing that a substantial patient population is not regularly covered for health care costs, only echo our campaign’s main policy messages.
It’s time for change and for actions that improve the situation of patients in Europe. The Commission and the OECD stated that ‘Member States policies should focus on reducing financial barriers to healthcare, strengthening access to primary care, and reducing excessive waiting times’, and this resonates with the five areas of action that we have identified for our campaign on Universal Health Coverage for All:
- Providing Quality of Care across the EU
From the patients’ perspective, access and quality are interlinked. EPF will advocate for standards and guidelines for quality of care to be defined with patients, and to be flexible to respond to the needs of individual patients rather than a “one size fits all approach”. We will make recommendations to ensure that key elements in assessing quality are included at EU and national level.
- Committing to Sustainable Investment in Health
Insufficient or inadequate investment in health is an important issue in many EU countries and often translates in health inequalities, poorer health outcomes, and highest cost for the system. EPF will call for Member States to commit to invest sustainably in all aspects of healthcare following health promotion, effective prevention and patient-centred chronic disease management.
- Encouraging Affordability of Healthcare Products and Services
Patients report that healthcare – when available – can be unaffordable and cause them financial hardship. Increasing co-payment, the cost of specialist care, price of innovative medicines and devices, price of diagnostics, and other non-reimbursed costs are all factors. In addition, patients are rarely involved in pricing and reimbursement decision making, which leads to discrepancies between what they need and what is reimbursed. To make the right to health a reality in the EU, healthcare needs to be affordable for all, not only for patients who can pay.
- Implementing Access to a Holistic Range of Health and Social Services
To address chronic conditions and multi-morbidity, patients need to have access to integrated care services. In this context, holistic support encompasses affordable access to physical and mental health services, as well as appropriate support from social services.
- Ending Discrimination and Stigma Patients Are Facing in Healthcare
Healthcare has to be available and appropriate to the needs of all patients, otherwise access to healthcare is not universal. EPF will work collaboratively with other NGOs to ensure the EU approach to universal health coverage is inclusive and addresses the access barriers that groups vulnerable to health inequalities are currently facing.
Following some in house brainstorming and design work, we are delighted to present you the official logo of the campaign.
EPF has decided to go for a logo representing a circle illustrating inclusiveness, coverage and universality. Within the circle, 5 persons in different colours show diversity and put the accent on the fact that health coverage should be a reality “For All”. In addition, each of these person represents one of the 5 policy areas of action explained above.
The logo also includes the tagline ‘Universal Health Coverage For All’, which shows our alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals aiming to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. The reference to health coverage makes clear that the approach of the campaign is much wider than access to medicines and treatment.
Finally, our presence on Social Media will be a strong dimension of our campaign strategy. For this purpose, we have chosen the hashtag #Access2030.
Contact persons:
Laurent Louette, Communications Officer
Sara Gayarre, Communications Assistant