Moving towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) requires a sustainable and equitable health financing system. Health financing should not only seek to raise sufficient funds and use them efficiently but do so in an equitable manner.1 There is a consensus among policymakers and health financing experts that payment for health care should be based on ability to pay (ATP) rather than utilization of health care.2,3 The relationship between health care payments and ATP, or progressivity of health financing, is a common measure of the performance of a health system in terms of equity and financial protection.4,5 In a progressive health system, the proportion of income contributed to financing health care increases with income. A regressive health system is considered to be inequitable, as people with lower income contribute a higher proportion of their income than those with higher income.
