The 2026 UHC Day campaign launches with the theme "Affordable health care, right here, right now!"

The webinar officially launched the 2026 UHC Day Campaign under the theme "Affordable Healthcare Right Here, Right Now," bringing together civil society, development partners, youth advocates, and health leaders. Featuring a panel discussion with global health experts and advocates, the event emphasized that UHC commitments exist on paper but have not been translated into equitable health outcomes. It called on all stakeholders to use the campaign tools to drive mobilization ahead of the 2027 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on UHC.  

See below for a detailed summary of the event. 

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Setting the context

After a projection of the campaign teaser announcing this year's slogan, Dr. Magda Robalo, co-chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, set the stage by describing the current global context and highlighting the urgent need to translate commitments into action. Her remarks underscored that for millions, UHC coverage exists on paper but not in practice — a family may have insurance yet still be unable to afford medicines; a pregnant woman may be entitled to care but live too far from a functioning facility. Dr. Robalo emphasized the need to guarantee that: 

• Everybody can access essential health services regardless of income, age, gender, disability, or location
• Services are available where and when people need them, across the full continuum of care
• People never have to choose between healthcare and other essential needs, such as food, education or housing 

She also reminded participants that, in light of the upcoming 2027 UNGA High-Level Meeting on UHC, this campaign comes at a critical time of implementation, not aspiration. Dr. Robalo concluded her remarks by emphasizing the collective responsibility for action from governments, health workers, civil society, private sector and youth, as well as the need to ensure that communities are empowered to shape solutions.  

Presenting the tools 

Paloma de la Cruz of the UHC2030 Secretariat presented this year's campaign materials, providing details on how to nominate a 2026 UHC Champion, contribute to the global heat map, engage in the youth challenge, and share the campaign visuals and assets. She also demonstrated this year's new, interactive campaign builder, which allows users to create and download their own custom visuals according to their preferred language, backgrounds, images and messages.  

Panel discussion 

The presentation of the toolkit was followed by a panel discussion with members of the Coalition of Partnerships for UHC and Global Health.  

• Rajat Khosla of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) spoke about the financial vulnerability of women, children and adolescents, stating that they are pushed into poverty by health costs because their health needs are greater, recurring, and cannot be postponed, yet they have the least means to pay and least say over spending. He stated that, in this context, we are facing not just a financial gap, but a service coverage gap, a legal gap, and an accountability gap. Citing the 300 Days of Activism initiative in Sierra Leone as an example of the impact of effective advocacy, he underscored the need to eliminate out-of-pocket payments at point of care for essential health services such as childbirth, vaccination and adolescent sexual and reproductive health; to uphold rights in law and essential health benefit packages; and to strengthen transparency and accountability through community involvement. 
• Alison Cox of the NCD Alliance highlighted the persistent gap between commitment and reality, stating that “We are not lacking commitments, we are lacking implementation - and accountability for delivering on those commitments.” Despite accounting for approximately 75% of deaths globally, NCDs scored the lowest UHC service coverage of the four areas measured in the 2025 UHC Global Monitoring Report. Moreover, out-of-pocket spending per clinic visit is approximately twice as high for NCDs as for acute diseases, and medicines represent over half of out-of-pocket NCD spending and are a lifelong, not one-time, cost. She called for the need to include essential NCD services explicitly in UHC benefit packages and to strengthen accountability for the 2025 Political Declaration on NCDs and mental health. In alignment with the 2026 UHC Day call to ensure essential health services respond to people's needs, Alison Cox also emphasized that national health budgets must reflect each country's NCD burden. 
• Mar Lucas Gómez of Fundación Huésped and UHC2030’s Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) spoke about another key gap between commitment and implementation: social participation mechanisms remain fragmented, weakly institutionalized and inadequately financed despite the adoption of the Resolution on Social Participation adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2024. Referring to social participation as an engine for accountability and a means of restoring trust and minimizing corruption, she called for three fundamental shifts: (a) from sporadic to institutionalized consultation of communities and civil society; (b) from exclusion to a focus on equity and awareness-raising; and (c) from rhetoric to implementation through sustained public funding.
• Anna Liakopoulou of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Association (IFMSA) spoke about youth engagement, stating that young people are frequently brought into discussions after decisions and priorities have already been set, limiting their influence to a token "youth perspective." She called for early and structural involvement in agenda-setting and policy development, implementation and monitoring, particularly in the context of the 2027 UN High-Level Meeting on UHC. She also emphasized the need for accessible, representative, and capacity-supported participation, as well as clear feedback and accountability loops so that youth can see how their inputs influence policy and what the next advocacy steps are. She encouraged participants to use the campaign toolkit and share their #HealthCostsHurt video testimonials to bring their lived experiences to the High-Level Meeting.
• Jaime Atienza of UNAIDS concluded the panel with a discussion on discrimination and inclusive UHC. He explained that in 2025, the HIV response faced the most severe cuts in its history, disproportionately impacting communities and prevention services. He called for the need to advance primary healthcare as the foundation of a sustainable HIV response, as well as to address discrimination through enabling laws, service design, and community integration. Jaime Atienza also called for integrated services that preserve quality of care and confidentiality, as well as increased country-level investments and health worker training on human rights to combat stigma.  

The need for greater accountability to drive implementation and progress was a common thread throughout the discussion. The panelists also agreed that advancing UHC requires engaging other sectors beyond health and involving people with lived experience in health decision-making. They highlighted adequate financing, affordable medicines, and political will as prerequisites for progress. Further, the panelists emphasized that local, grounded actions make greater impact, calling on advocates and organizations to use the 2026 UHC Day campaign tools to drive change. 

The panel discussion was followed by a rich Q&A session, with topics ranging from how to drive change in conflict-affected settings to how to ensure the inclusion of people with disability when data is lacking.   

Closing the session 

Dr. Pamela Cipriano, Co-chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, provided closing remarks, noting the overarching focus on people-centered resilient health systems that reduce inequalities and protect vulnerable populations in emergencies and conflict. She called for investment in health as an economic imperative, reminding participants that inequality and inadequate health systems reduce workforce productivity and societal contribution, not just individual well-being. She also reinforced the need to support health and care workers as a foundational element of driving progress towards UHC. She reiterated the campaign messages, encouraging participants to extend the conversation beyond their usual networks and to share and amplify their lived experiences.  

The event ended with the following calls to action for participants:  

• Use the campaign toolkit at UHCDay.org to spread the word and engage in and customize the campaign.
• Sign up for the UHC Day Updates on Substack for ongoing campaign news and advocacy resources.
• Create and share their #HealthCostsHurt video. 

Watch the event recording here