Background: Universal health coverage (UHC) assures all types of health service and protects all citizens financially in\nany conditions due to illness. Globally, the UN sustainable development goal (SDG) provides high priority for UHC as a\nhealth related goal. The National health system of Nepal has prioritized in similar way. The aim of this study is to\nexplore the challenges and opportunities on the road to UHC in Nepal.\nMethod: We used varieties of search terminologies with popular search engines like PubMed, Google, Google Scholar,\netc. to identify studies regarding Nepalâ??s progress towards UHC. Reports of original studies, policies, guidelines and\ngovernment manuals were taken from the web pages of Ministry of Health and its department/division. Searches were\ndesigned to identify the status of service coverage on UHC, financial protection on health particularly, health insurance\ncoverage with its legal status. Other associated factors related to UHC were also explored and presented in Preferred\nReporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow chart.\nResults: We found 14 studies that were related to legal assurance, risk pulling and financing of health service, 11 studies\nassociated to UHC service coverage status and, 7 articles linked to government stewardship, health system and\ngovernance on health care. Constitutional provision, global support, progress on the health insurance act, decentralization\nof health service to the grass root level, positive trends of increasing service coverage are seen as opportunities. However,\nexisting volunteer types of health insurance, misleading role of trade unions and high proportion of population outside\nthe country are main challenges. The political commitment under the changing political context, a sense of national\npriority and international support were identified as the facilitating factors towards UHC.\nConclusion: To achieve UHC, service and population coverage of health services has to be expanded along with financial\nprotection for marginalized communities. Government stewardship, support of stakeholders and fair contribution and\ndistribution of resources by appropriate health financing modality can speed up the path of UHC in Nepal.
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