It's easy to see how the concept of universal health coverage
(UHC) became so elusive. At the start, the idea must have seemed
straightforward enough. Lots of countries "covered" only part of
their population, and several were making efforts to expand
coverage to "uncovered" populations. China, for example, started
out on this process in 2003, trying to expand coverage to the
rural population that lost coverage when the old rural
cooperative medical scheme collapsed following the de-
collectivization of agriculture in 1978. It didn't take long,
however, for someone to point out that in a sense everyone
already has coverage. China's rural health facilities continued
to receive subsidies even after 1978. Thailand already had a
network of government facilities even before it launched its UC
scheme. Mexican families without a social security member
already had access to the network of government facilities run
by the ministry of health even before the Seguro Popular scheme
was launched. Coverage was already univer