# Put the essential palliative care package into every universal health coverage benefit list

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-acc-essential-palliative-package-in-uhc/  
OnCo record `idea-acc-essential-palliative-package-in-uhc` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The Lancet Commission defined a cheap basic package of drugs, equipment and staff for palliative care. Countries expanding health coverage should include it as a guaranteed benefit.

## Summary

The Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief specified an Essential Package (a short list of medicines including oral morphine, basic equipment, and human resources) costed at a few dollars per capita in low-income countries. Countries designing universal health coverage benefit packages routinely omit palliative care. Advocacy and technical assistance to include the package as a defined entitlement would make funding and delivery accountable.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Countries adding the Essential Package to their benefit lists will show increased morphine availability at district level and higher palliative care coverage within three years compared with countries that do not.
- Rationale: Benefit-package inclusion is how services move from charity to entitlement; the package is defined, costed, and endorsed.
- Proposed test: Track adoption across countries revising benefit packages, with availability audits and coverage estimates before and after inclusion.
- Maturity: speculative
- Actor: policy

## Sources

- Lancet Commission on palliative care and pain relief: https://www.thelancet.com/commissions/palliative-care

## Connected records

- bottlenecks: [Funding follows fashion, not burden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/), [Most of the world has almost no cancer care](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-global-access/), [Pain relief and palliative care are unavailable to most](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-palliative/)

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