Conditional cash transfers (CCT) are a stepping stone to universal health coverage, not just help for individual families. ADB recently approved a $400 million loan for the Philippine government to expand the CCT program, which started in 2008 and has since expanded to become the third largest such program in the world after Mexico and Colombia, covering more than 4.4 million poor households in under a decade. The CCT program gives cash transfers to poor families, provided, among other things, that pregnant household members seek antenatal care and a health professional delivers the baby. It requires that children aged 5 years and younger are immunized and monitored in case of malnutrition, and the children aged 6 to 14 are de-wormed twice a year. More than just granting cash, the program intends to break the vicious intergenerational nature of poverty. CCT programs can catalyze the attainment of universal health coverage (UHC). — Blogs.adb.org/blogs