Universal health coverage is about ensuring all people can get quality health services

, where and when they need them, without suffering financial hardship. No one should have to choose between good health and other life necessities.UHC is key to people’s and nations’ health and well-being.UHC is feasible. Some countries have made great progress. Their challenge is to maintain coverage to meet people’s expectations. All countries will approach UHC in different ways: there is no one size fits all. But every country can do something to advance UHC.
Making health services truly universal requires a shift from designing health systems around diseases and institutions towards health services designed around and for people. Everyone can play a part in the path to UHC, by taking part in a UHC conversation.
Sudan has already taken some strategic steps towards UHC, such as the National Health Sector Strategic Plan (2012-16). The health sector strategy aims at achieving UHC, and one of the means by which it hopes to do that is by launching a primary health care expansion programme. The Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has stated a policy of integration and task shifting to primary and community care.
To improve the situation especially in regard to the delivery of integrated services, programmes are addressing Sudan’s high burden of diseases and related health priorities while targeting under-served populations to improve equity to access. One such programme is a joint project between the FMOH, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and WHO that trains, equips and deploys Community Health Workers in order to improve health outcomes and health status. These programmes are seeking to provide affordable, socially acceptable health care to the community.
WHO provided assistance in defining an integrated community health care package, and substantial work was done for health facilities to act as one-stop-shop for providing integrated health services and referral support for community care. All of these initiatives are ensuring that UHC is gaining momentum in Sudan.
The tagline for this year’s World Health Day 7 April is “Universal Health Coverage: everyone, everywhere”.
In spite of the presence of Social Health Insurance and Private Health Insurance in Sudan, the country is still far from achieving universal coverage. Moreover, the sustainability of health insurance is questionable. The main reasons include low governmental financial resources and lack of affordability by beneficiaries especially for Private Health Insurance.
This necessitates finding solutions to improve them or trying other types of health insurance. The quality of services provided by Social Health Insurance and Private Health Insurance was described as good, but no insurance in Sudan measured customer satisfaction as yet.
All different Government sectors at the Federal and States Ministry of Health  and communities should committed themselves to insure good Health for all and to provide health quality  services to citizens  to achieve universal health coverage in Sudan.