A Lancet Public Health article calls for a cosmopolitan approach to UHC that ensures migrants and refugees have equitable access to health care through global solidarity and inclusive financing.
As global migration and displacement reshape societies, a new Lancet Public Health article—Universal health coverage in the context of migration and displacement: a cosmopolitan perspective—calls for a bold rethinking of how health systems serve mobile populations. Authored by Santino Severoni, Claudia Marotta, and Prof Josephine Borghi, the article argues that current UHC frameworks are ill-equipped to address the complex health needs of migrants and displaced people. Structural gaps, limited funding, and restrictive legal frameworks often prevent equitable access to care, undermining the principles of universal health coverage.
The authors propose a cosmopolitan approach to UHC based on four pillars: supranational financing mechanisms, integrated cross-border health care, harmonised legal protections, and sustained investment in inclusive, resilient systems. They argue that climate finance and global taxation could be tapped to support migrant health, reducing the burden on host countries, many of which are in the Global South and already under fiscal strain.
With climate change, conflict, and economic instability accelerating displacement, the paper emphasises the urgent need to reframe health care as a shared global responsibility. A cosmopolitan model for UHC, they conclude, is essential not only to protect migrant and refugee health but to safeguard public health and equity for all.
