Conference on Ethical Issues in Universal Health Coverage to Be Held April 18-19

The Harvard University Program in Ethics and Health announces the 8th Annual International Bioethics Conference, Universal Health Coverage in Low-Income Countries: Ethical Issues, to be held on April 18 and 19, 2013, at the Inn at Longwood Medical, 342 Longwood Avenue, Boston. The conference is free and open to the public, but space is limited and registration is required.

The conference explores the question, can universal coverage be achieved even in the world’s lowest-income countries? China’s recent health reform--which in three years has extended health coverage, including innovative financing initiatives in some of the poorest provinces, to 95% of Chinese citizens--has focused the attention of governments of low-income countries on universal coverage. The World Health Organization’s annual report of 2010, Health Systems Financing: The Path to Universal Coverage, identified the prospects for universal coverage (UC) in even the least-developed countries and sparked an international effort to pursue this once-elusive goal.

While maintaining a constructive and optimistic frame of mind is essential for progress toward UC, it is necessary also to identify the key ethical dilemmas arising in trying to extend the health system to all with so few resources. The choices are unavoidable:

  • Between goals of UC (including financial protection against catastrophic medical expenses; health; and personal and national overall wellbeing);
  • Between dimensions of UC (who is covered; what is covered; what share of costs are covered); and
  • Trade-offs within and between each of these.

Each country will resolve these dilemmas in its own way. A goal of the conference is to enhance nations’ capacities for ethical deliberation on UC so that the ethical choices can be made responsibly and thoughtfully.

Speakers include:

  • William Hsiao - Harvard School of Public Health
  • Norman Daniels – Harvard School of Public Health
  • Adam Wagstaff - World Bank
  • Alex Voorhoeve - London School of Economics and Princeton University
  • Alicia Yamin - Harvard University
  • Dan Brock - Harvard Medical School
  • Davidson Gwatkin - Results for Development Institute and Johns Hopkins University
  • Gita Sen - Indian Institute of Management and Harvard University
  • Larry Temkin - Rutgers University
  • Lydia Kapiri - McMaster University
  • Matthew Adler - University of Pennsylvania
  • Mickey Chopra - UNICEF
  • Nir Eyal- Harvard Medical School
  • Peter Vallentyne - University of Missouri
  • Till Baernighausen - Harvard School of Public Health
  • Toby Ord - University of Oxford

Please visit the conference website to register and for more information.

Conference co-sponsors: The Division of Medical Ethics and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard Law School; Harvard Global Health Institute; Department of Global and Public Health, University of Bergen; with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund.