The SDGs and health systems: the last step on the long and unfinished journey to universal health care?

In 2015, the world’s governments committed, in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to achieve universal health coverage by 2030, something they will be held accountable for. We examine progress in the WHO European Region using data from several sources. We assess effective coverage using data from the Global Burden of Disease Programme, including access to 9 key interventions for maternal and child health and communicable and non-communicable diseases and mortality from 32 conditions amenable to health care. Progress is mixed; while Finland and Iceland have already achieved the 2030 target already, other countries, including in the Caucasus and Central Asia have not yet, and are unlikely to by 2030. We then examine financial protection, where progress lags in Central and South East Europe and the former Soviet Union, where high out-of-pocket healthcare payments and catastrophic spending are still common. We stress the need to consider inequalities within countries, with the most vulnerable groups, such as Roma or newly arrived migrants (from the Middle East and Africa) often underserved, while their needs are frequently undocumented. To make progress on the SDGs, governments must invest more heavily in health services research and support the infrastructure and capacity required to enable it.