Nicole Bergen
1* 
, Arne Ruckert
2, Ronald Labonté
3 1 Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
2 Faculty of Medicine, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
3 Canada Research Chair, Globalization and Health Equity, Faculty of Medicine, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Abstract
Implementing universal health coverage (UHC) is widely perceived to be central to achieving the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), and is a work program priority of the World Health Organization (WHO). Much has
already been written about how low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can monitor progress towards UHC,
with various UHC monitoring frameworks available in the literature. However, we suggest that these frameworks are
largely irrelevant in high-income contexts and that the international community still needs to develop UHC monitoring
framework meaningful for high-income countries (HICs). As a first step, this short communication presents preliminary
findings from a literature review and document analysis on how various countries monitor their own progress towards
achieving UHC. It furthermore offers considerations to guide meaningful UHC monitoring and reflects on pertinent
challenges and tensions to inform future research on UHC implementation in HIC settings