Further significant efforts towards ensuring universal access to quality care have been made in Asia-Pacific countries and territories. This is witnessed by the significant decline in infant and maternal mortality, in particular in the lower-middle and low-income countries. Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific 2018 documents the progress made, but also sheds light on remaining gaps to improve the health of populations and, in particular, to reduce inequalities in access and improve quality of care. While access to care for the most marginalised groups has improved, women in low-income households living in rural areas constantly report significant problems in accessing needed care, due to distance and financial reasons. Addressing these gaps is necessary to achieve more inclusive economic growth and to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific 2018 presents key indicators on equity, health status, determinants of health, health care resources and utilisation, health expenditure and financing, and quality of care for 27 Asia-Pacific countries and territories. The report provides a concise overview of the progress of countries towards achieving universal health coverage for their population.

Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific presents a set of key indicators on health and health systems for 27 Asia-Pacific countries and territories. It builds on the format used in previous editions of Health at a Glance to present comparable data on equity, health status and its determinants, health care resources and utilisation, health expenditure and financing and health care quality.

The aim of this chapter is to show a set of key indicators to compare performance across countries in each of the following dimensions:

Unequal access to fundamental rights and services – such as health care – required for individuals to sustain and improve their livelihoods stifle economic growth and poverty reduction and undermine social cohesion and stability (UNESCAP, 2017).The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to leave no one behind, and the reduction of inequalities is said explicitly in SDG 10 “to reduce inequality within and among countries”. SDG 3 is a call to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, which implies tackling inequalities in health (WHO, 2017a).The aim of this chapter is to explore health inequalities across a number of social determinants: gender, economic status, education and place of residence. Evidence suggests that certain socially disadvantaged groups tend to use health services less, although these groups may need health services more. This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as “inverse care law”, can partly be explained by the fact that disadvantaged groups typically face multiple barriers in accessing services, such as financial, geographical and cultural barriers. Using country data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), this chapter analyses disparities in access to care and use of services by also looking at changes over time. Comparing results from earlier and later surveys reveals that access rates to care for the most marginalised groups have improved. However, it also finds that women in worst-off households living in rural areas constantly report significant problems in accessing care when needed due to distance and financial reasons.