More than 360 economists in 53 countries have now signed the Economists’ Declaration on Universal Health Coverage. This historic document, led by Lawrence H. Summers of Harvard University, calls on global policymakers to prioritize a pro-poor pathway to universal health coverage as an essential pillar of sustainable development. Because investing in health makes economic sense.
The Economists’ Declaration was originally launched in September 2015 with 267 signatories in 44 countries. It was published in The Lancet and publicized in The New York Times.
With the United Nations launching the bold sustainable development agenda, this is a crucial moment for global leaders to reflect on the financial investments needed to maximize progress by 2030. As an input into deliberations around those investments, the signatories to this declaration, 267 economists from 44 countries, call on global policymakers to prioritize a pro-poor pathway to universal health coverage as an essential pillar of development.
Universal health coverage means ensuring that everyone can obtain essential health services at high quality without suffering financial hardship. Resource constraints require individual countries to determine their own definition of “essential” – while recognizing, in the words of former World Health Organization Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland, that “… if services are to be provided for all, not all services can be provided. The most cost-effective services should be provided first.”
Even granted this recognition of resource constraints, our generation has a historic opportunity to achieve a “grand convergence” in global health, reducing preventable maternal, child, and infectious disease deaths to universally low levels by 2035. In its report, Global Health 2035, the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health showed that with today’s powerful tools for improving health, and the prospect for continued improvement in those tools, financially feasible universal health coverage in every country could lead to grand convergence with its accompanying benefits in both health and in protection from health-related financial risks. (1)
We amplify these points below.
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Even with substantial rates of economic growth, resources for health (and other sectors) will remain highly constrained. The intrinsic value of improved health – and the demonstrated potential of governments and aid agencies to deliver key health interventions – points to maintaining and expanding commitment to health through investing in pro-poor pathways to universal health coverage. Amartya Sen has labeled this opportunity “the affordable dream.” (8)
Nejat Anbarci
Hristos Doucouliagos
Stephen Duckett
Simon Eckermann
Mark McGillivray
Barbara McPake
Jorida Zeneli
Juan Ignacio Altuna
Silvia Juncos
Alejandro Sonis
Alberto Testa
Syed Abdul Hamid
Mohammad A. Jabbar
Atonu Rabbani
Claude d’Aspremont Lynden
Michel Huybrechts
Andre Sapir
Reinhilde Veugelers
Ignez Tristao
Luis Tejerina
Linah K. Mohohlo
Denizar Vianna Araujo
Tania Maria Beume
Marcia Cristina Gomes da Rocha
Vera Martins Da Silva
Marcella Distrutti
Luiz Alberto Esteves
Alexandre Chiavegatto Filho
Naercio Menezes Filho
Bruno Cara Giovannetti
Andre Medici
Marcelo J. Moreira
Rodrigo Soares
Mario Ramos Ribeiro
Zakariaou Njoumemi
Matilde Bombardini
Timothy Evans
Alan Freeman
Prabhat Jha
Steve Morgan
M. Kent Ranson
Alan Whiteside
Camilo Cid
Manuel Llorca-Jaña
Miguel Quiroga-Suazo
Christian Hernandez Valenzuela
Jikun Huang
Justin Yifu Lin
Ding Liu
Gordon G. Liu
Pedro Buitrago
Giancarlo Romano G
Carlos Ernesto Escobar Vargas
James Cercone
Luis Elizondo Vidaurre
Ibrahim Magazi
Christopher Pissarides
Bjørn Lomborg
Ruth Lucio
Ahmed Kouchouk
Degnet Abebaw
Assefa Abebe
Tadele Feree Agaje
Joseph Atta-Mensah
Alemayehu Geda
Netsanet Walelign Workie
Jerome Creel
Alan Kirman
Brouillet Pascal
Jean-Jacques Paul
Thomas Piketty
Eric de Roodenbeke
John Komlos
Dalia Marin
Philip Kofi Adom
Frank Adu
Moses Aikins
Genevieve Cecilia Aryeetey
Francis Mensah Asenso-Boadi
Chris Atim
Richmond Commodore
Selassi Amah d’Almeida
Augustin Kwasi Fosu
Edward Nketiah-Amponsah
Justice Nonvignon
Peter Quartey
Daniel Sakyi
Nii Kwaku Sowa
Henry Telli
Ebo Turkson
George Tweneboah
Timothy O. Williams
Vinod B. Annigeri
Kishor Hari Badatya
Sugata Bag
Aditya Bhattacharjea
Pratap Singh Birthal
Satya R. Chakravarty
Sarbajit Chaudhuri
Mausumi Das
Nimai Das
Indraneel Dasgupta
S. Mahendra Dev
Chetan Ghate
Ashima Goyal
K. S. James
Somdeb Lahiri
Ramanan Laxminarayan
Srijit Mishra
Diganta Mukherjee
Subrata Mukherjee
Anjan Mukherji
Arnab Mukherji
Soumyanetra Munshi
Amarendu Nandy
Pulin B. Nayak
Rupayan Pal
Durgesh C. Pathak
M. Govinda Rao
Ayanendu Sanyal
Subrata Sarkar
Anindya Sen
Soumyen Sikdar
Charan Singh
Anup Sinha
Pankaj Sinha
Uday Bhanu Sinha
E. Somanathan
Krishnamurthy Subramanian (Subbu)
Aviral Tiwari
Beena Varghese
Teguh Dartanto
Djoni Hartono
Athia Yumna
Arief Anshory Yusuf
Sergiu Hart
Ferdinando Regalia
Masahiro Kawai
Alistair Munro
Takashi Oshio
Kenichi Ueda
Akihito Watabe
Japheth Awiti
Joy Mueni Kiiru
Diana Kimani
George Kosimbei
Dianah Mukwate
Joseph Muchai Muniu
Mwenda Mwilaria
Jennifer Njaramba
Martine Odhiambo Oleche
Perez Onono
Apurva Sanghi
Syed Mohamed Aljunid
Esteban Colla
Javier Dorantes Aguilar
Pablo Ibarraran
Matthew Kovach
Alejandro Figueroa Lara
David Mayer-Foulkes
Isidro Soloaga
Carlos M. Urzúa
Rachid M. Aourraz
Driss M. Zine-Eddine El-Idrissi
Alex Ergo
Carlos Herrera U
Kehinde Akeem Adegoke
Ayodeji Ajiboye
Shehu Rano Aliyu
Elaine Baruwa
Nkata Chuku
Sampson Ezikeanyi
Musa Ibrahim Jega
Kenneth Ojo
Olumide Okunola
Olubajo Olalekan
Adesoji Ologun
Obinna Onwujekwe
Chibuzo Opara
Afees Adebare Salisu
Francis Nwachukwu Ukwuije
Halvor Mehlum
Kjetil Storesletten
Howard White
Suleman Abdiah
Hasan M. Mohsin
Sandro Parodi
Rita Bastião
Antonio Fatas
Kai Hong Phua
Haroon Bhorat
Stan du Plessis
J. Paul Dunne
Jaya Josie
Mmatlou Kalaba
Patrizio Piraino
Nicola Viegi
Nick Vink
Martin Wittenberg
Ingrid Woolard
Cheolsu Kim
Maria Blanco
Irma Clots-Figueras
Guillem Lopez-Casasnovas
Andreu Mas-Colell
Rafael Luque Muñoz
Ángel López Nicolás
Bienvenido Ortega
Julio Segura
Jose Tuñón
Justice Mensah
Thomas Sterner
David B. Evans
Michael Gerfin
Alberto Holly
Jürgen Maurer
Xenia Scheil-Adlung
Simon Wieser
Viroj NaRanong
Ammar Siamwalla
Siripen Supakankunti
Chalongphob Sussangkarn
Nualnoi Treerat
Rob Baltussen
Hengky Kurniawan
J.L. (Hans) Severens
Eddy van Doorslaer
Karl Kendrick Chua
Bilin Neyapti
Ilhan Can Ozen
Ilhan Ozturk
Ali C. Tasiran
Erol Taymaz
Ebru Voyvoda
A. Erinc Yeldan
Mugisha David
Willy Rwamparagi Kagarura
Norbert Mubiru
Jean-Pascal N. Nganou
Tony Atkinson
Nicholas Barr
Andrew Briggs
Karl Claxton
Paul Collier
Joan Costa-Font
Anthony J. Culyer
Tim Ensor
Eric French
Stephany Griffith-Jones
Andrew Hughes Hallett
Kara Hanson
Jenni Hislop
Mireia Jofre-Bonet
Andrew M. Jones
Richard Layard
Paul Levine
Anil Markandya
Marisa Miraldo
Alistair McGuire
Giovanni Melina
Anne Mills
Patrick V. Moore
Lucia Fiestas Navarrete
Joseph Pearlman
Zahidul Quayyum
Lucrezia Reichlin
Paul Revill
Bibhas Saha
Mark Sculpher
Peter C. Smith
Richard D. Smith
Nicholas Stern
Frances Stewart
Marc Suhrcke
Adair Turner
Anna Vassal
Sophie Witter
Olivia Wu
Robert Yates
Winnie Yip
M. Caridad Araujo
Suchit Arora
Kenneth Arrow
Dean Baker
Kaushik Basu
Peter Berman
Stefano M. Bertozzi
David Blanchflower
Jacob Bor
Rebekah Heinzen Borse
Jeremy Bulow
Robert J. Camfield
Jim Campen
Karen Cavanaugh
Cheryl Cashin
Frank J. Chaloupka
Menzie D. Chinn
Daniel Cotlear
Janet Currie
David Cutler
Patricia Danzon
Brad DeLong
Asif Ud Dowla
Pascaline Dupas
Anthony Elson
James Fearon
Brandon Fenley
Carolyn Fischer
Victor R. Fuchs
Fabio Ghironi
Amanda Glassman
Alexander Gleason
Rachel Glennerster
Nora Gordon
Karen A. Grépin
Michael Grossman
Jonathan Gruber
Robert Haveman
Peter Heller
Rebecca Henderson
Christopher Hollenbeak
William Hsiao
Wenke Hwang
John Irons
Paul Isenman
Dean Jamison
Seema Jayachandran
Arjun Jayadev
Geoffrey Joyce
Ted Joyce
Dean Karlan
Robert Klitgaard
Eric Kramer
Sanjeev Kumar
Mattias Lundberg
Caroline Ly
Sara Machado
Carlos Martins-Filho
Keith E. Maskus
Deborah McFarland
Bruce Mizrach
Akbar Noman
Rachel Nugent
Nikolas Papavlassopulos
Germain Pichop
Anne Morrison Piehl
Steve Radelet
Lakshmi K. Raut
Alvin Roth
Bernard Salanie
Will Semmler
Jason Shogren
Lara Shore-Sheppard
Vernon L. Smith
Agnes Soucat
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Lawrence H. Summers
Anita A. Summers
Daria Taglioni
Frank Thompson
Linda Thunstrom
Nathan W. Tefft
David J. Vanness
Nicholas Wilson
Barbara L. Wolfe
Tetsuji Yamada
Harry Zhang
Luis Zambrano Sequin
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