Amnesty International calls on U.S. to fulfill human right to health care

Amnesty International has launched a petition calling on health reformers to recognize that health care is a human right, not a commodity. The petition emerges from the work of a new Health Care is a Human Right Coalition, which includes Amnesty International, the National Social and Economic Rights Initiative (NESRI), the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), and the Opportunity Agenda.

The petition urges elected officials to deliver a U.S. health care system that fulfills the human right to health care and meets the core principles of universality, equity, and accountability. It states that “publicly financed and administered health care should be expanded as the strongest vehicle for making health care accessible and accountable to the people.”

This petition is a much needed and welcome intervention in the ongoing health care reform debate, in which key decisionmakers – including Obama and congressional leaders – appear to have settled on continuing the present market-based system of private health coverage, which treats health care as a commodity sold to those who can afford it.  Options for reform that would make health care a public good have been sidelined, including the option of a single payer system. This petition offers support for reform alternatives from an as yet untapped large activist constituency, the millions of members that Amnesty International and other large human rights organizations can mobilize.

Download the petition here: http://www.nesri.org/Health_Care_is_a_Human_Right_Petition-Amnesty_International.doc

You can also sign a short version of the petition online – you’ll see a link here: http://www.nesri.org

CIW Wins Florida Governor Crist’s Support For Fair Food Campaign!

Today, following months of struggle and advocacy by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and the Alliance for Fair Food (co-founded by NESRI), Florida Governor Charlie Crist finally sent the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) a letter stating “I have no tolerance for slavery in any form, and I am committed to eliminating this injustice anywhere in Florida…” Crist went on to recognize the indisputable link between slavery and the failure to protect the economic and social rights of farmwokers, and stated “I support the Coalition’s Campaign for Fair Food.” Read the Governor’s letter to CIW >>>

New briefing paper: human rights principles for financing health care

In response to President Obama’s eight principles for health care reform, the Human Right to Health Program, run by the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative and the National Health Law Program, has released ten human rights principles for financing health care. The ten principles set down markers for health care reformers to help them meet human rights standards. Taken together they provide a framework for realizing the goal of a healthy society in a financially sustainable way.   

“Key to the financial sustainability of our health care system is that we treat health care as a public good,” said Anja Rudiger, director of the Human Right to Health Program. “Because public goods belong to all of us, we cannot allow for-profit companies such as insurers to restrict our access to care. According to human rights principles, health care should be publicly financed and administered rather than sold through insurance middlemen to those who can afford it.”

 

Human rights principles also require health care to be financed in a way that is accountable to the people and responsive to health needs, and that rewards quality, appropriate care and improved health outcomes. The principles stress that resources in the health care system must be used for the public purpose of protecting everyone’s health, leaving no one behind, and investing in communities whose health has not kept up with the rest of the population.

 

“We’re encouraged that President Obama recently confirmed that for-profit private companies are not the best choice for realizing a public purpose,” said Rudiger, referring to the president’s remarks on earmarks. “The president said that ‘Private companies differ from the public entities that Americans rely on every day –- schools, and police stations, and fire departments [where] there’s some confidence that there’s going to be a public purpose.’ For-profit corporations in the health care industry simply aren’t set up to fulfill such a public purpose; they exist to make a private profit,” Rudiger pointed out.

 

According to human rights standards, first articulated under U.S. leadership in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the human right to health care requires a system of health protection which ensures that everyone can get appropriate health care, where and when they need it, regardless of their ability to pay.

 

“Human Rights Principles for Financing Health Care” is available for download at www.nesri.org. Direct link: http://www.nesri.org/Human_Rights_Principles_for_Financing_Health_Care.pdf

 

New Release: Ten Human Rights Principles for Financing Health Care

NESRI’s Human Right to Health Program, run jointly with the National Health Law Program, has developed ten human rights principles for financing health care. The ten principles set down markers for health care reformers to help them meet human rights standards. Taken together they provide a framework for realizing the goal of a healthy society in a financially sustainable way. Read the press release here >>> Download the principles here >>> (longer version) or here >>> (shorter version).

New Documentary on New Orleans Schools

Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) have released a trailer of their new documentary Stopping the School to Prison Pipeline. Watch the trailer and find out what’s happening in New Orleans schools and FFLIC’s work to end the school to prison pipeline. >>>