[Correspondence] Key points to consider in the IMPERIAL trial – Author’s reply

We agree with Jim Reekers that the IMPERIAL trial,1 in both device concept and trial design, as well as in its outcome, was unique and important in the endovascular field. We also wholeheartedly support the use of supervised exercise training in peripheral arterial disease patients as a valuable primary and adjunctive tool to improve symptoms and functional capacity, and we are especially pleased at the decision in 2017 by the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

[Editorial] Universal health care in 21st century Americas

Despite considerable progress, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) estimates that 30% of the population of the Americas still do not have access to the health care they need because of multifaceted barriers. On April 9, leaders, including Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, PAHO director Carissa Etienne, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, gathered with academics, activists, and representatives of social movements in Mexico City to hear the report ...

[Comment] A dark day for universal health coverage

Dec 14, 2018, was a dark day for universal health coverage (UHC). To begin with, a federal judge in Texas, USA, ruled that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional.1 That same day, the new President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced his intention to abolish the country's largest public insurance programme, known as Seguro Popular (People's Health Insurance).2 The ACA and Seguro Popular have extended health coverage to millions of previously uninsured families, most of...

[Editorial] For universal health coverage, tomorrow is today

In a Comment published alongside the Lancet Series America: Equity and Inequality in Health in April, 2017, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wrote: “Today, we must do everything we can to prevent the repeal of the [Affordable Care Act (ACA)] and oppose attempts by the Trump administration to undermine it by failing to enforce the law or promulgating regulations that would sabotage it. Tomorrow, we must work to join the rest of the industrialised world and guarantee health care to all citizens th...