Universal health coverage: breakthrough or great white elephant?

Will the Sustainable Development Goal 3 sub-goal "Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health care services and…safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all" be judged a breakthrough or a great white elephant in implementation, when we look back with the clear eyes of hindsight in 2030? What are the ways in which this agenda might play out in implementation and why might it do so? Drawing on a desk review, this Essay explores dominant ideas, ideology, institutions, and interests in relation to global versus Ghana national health priorities since the WHO constitution came into effect in 1948, to reflect on these questions.