4. Health Sector Scenarios in Sri Lanka: Policy Designing and Implications

In the year 2005, WHO adopted the resolution that all countries across the globe should start extending and facilitating access to all essential health services to all its citizens so that catastrophic health shocks are completely eliminated from the economies. While the MDGs emphasised on piecemeal steps towards achieving small target indicators such as MMR and IMR, SDGs take a holistic approach; therefore, targets before the countries have become more stringent. From governance point of view, the most critical step lies in defining “all essential health services’’, which WHO has enlisted, which is suggestive in nature since regions and countries do vary in terms of the type, severity and extent of diseases that they are exposed to, and the kind of health concerns that they already have. The landmark report of WHO released in 2010 [Health systems financing—the path to universal coverage] mentions that health financing is a major concern and a big hindrance in achieving UHC, especially in the low-income countries.