What matters in health (care) universes: delusions, dilutions, and ways towards universal health justice

• Main Authors: Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Laura Nervi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-11-01
• Series: Globalization and Health
• Subjects: Universal health systems; Universal health coverage; Universal health justice; Neoliberalism; Latin America; Global health agendas
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-019-0521-7

Abstract The presumed global consensus on achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) masks crucial issues regarding the principles and politics of what constitutes “universality” and what matters, past and present, in the struggle for health (care) justice. This article focuses on three dimensions of the problematic: 1) we unpack the rhetoric of UHC in terms of each of its three components: universal, health, and coverage; 2) paying special attention to Latin America, we revisit the neoliberal coup d’état against past and contemporary struggles for health justice, and we consider how the current neoliberal phase of capitalism has sought to arrest these struggles, co-opt their language, and narrow their vision; and 3) we re-imagine the contemporary challenges/dilemmas concerning health justice, transcending the false technocratic consensus around UHC and re-infusing the profoundly political nature of this struggle. In sum, as with the universe writ large, a range of matters matter: socio-political contexts at national and international levels, agenda-setting power, the battle over language, real policy effects, conceptual narratives, and people’s struggles for justice.