Primary Health Care is a 3-for-1 investment in universal health coverage, health security and better health & wellbeing – and it’s time leaders acted like it. That’s why for this year’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day, we at Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) along with over 200 ally organizations signed the Allies Improving PHC open letter urging leaders to prioritize the importance of primary health care as an investment in health for all.

The letter calls for leaders to take action in placing primary health care to the top of their agenda across the 2023 UN High-Level Meetings on Universal Health Coverage and Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response, and the 2023 midpoint of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The letter outlines the need for a strengthening of health systems through a primary health care approach focused on the following essential three shifts:

1. Prioritize people who have been failed by the system, not those who already benefit from it.
2. Give the people what they want: quality health services in their community that work around their needs, preferences, and everyday lives – instead of requiring financial or personal sacrifices to get a trusted standard of care.
3. Treat primary health care as an investment, not a cost, to build resilience into the foundation of the health system and improve health outcomes for all.

As we count down to major 2023 milestones for universal health coverage, pandemic prep & the SDGs, join us in signing and sharing the open letter so that we can make this time different.