Define Universal Health Coverage indicators: service coverage and financial risk protection; provide examples of each.

• A. Vaccination access and maternal care services.
• B. Avoiding catastrophic health expenditures.
• C. Access to luxury health services.
• D. Number of hospitals in a region.

Answer: (A)

Universal Health Coverage indicators are built around two essential ideas: service coverage and financial risk protection. Service coverage measures whether people can actually obtain the essential health services they need, such as preventive and maternal care. Vaccination access and maternal care services directly illustrate this, since they show whether a population has access to key, basic health services that prevent illness and support safe motherhood.

Financial risk protection, on the other hand, looks at whether people are shielded from financial hardship when using health services. A phrase like avoiding catastrophic health expenditures fits this well because it focuses on protecting households from medical costs that could push them into poverty.

The other options don’t align as cleanly with service coverage or financial risk protection. Access to luxury health services is not about essential, equitable access, and the number of hospitals in a region speaks more to capacity than to whether people can use necessary services or be protected from financial risk.

So listing vaccination access and maternal care services best reflects service coverage indicators.