Human Right to Health Program, New York, NY 10038, USA.
Health Hum Rights. 2008;10(1):123-35.
Although the crisis of health care in the United States is widely acknowledged- marked by poor health outcomes, high costs, unequal access, and widening health inequities--its structural underpinnings have not been adequately addressed and reformers have settled on promoting piecemeal measures to avoid disruption. The human right to health care offers an analytical and advocacy framework for shifting the health care reform debate from individualist, market-based approaches to the collective responsibility for health care as a public good based on an assessment of the health care reform proposals put foward during the U.S. 2008 presidential primaries, the article argues that the emerging consensus among Democrats and health care advocacy organizations on incremental, market-based reforms ignores issues of equity, participation, and accountability. Alternately, the newly popularized concept of shared responsibility would reconnect rights to responsibilities and thus reinforce the public obligation to protect and provide health care. The article concludes by introducing the Human Right to Health Program, run by the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), which seeks to advance the recognition of health care as a human right in the US by supporting grassroots partners and allies in their struggle for universal and equitable health care.
虽然美国的医疗保健危机——以健康状况不佳、成本高、获得机会不平等和健康不平等加剧为特征——广为人知，但其结构基础尚未得到充分解决，改革者已决定采取零碎的措施来避免造成混乱。医疗保健是一项人权，它为转变医疗保健改革辩论提供了一个分析和宣传框架，将辩论从以个人主义、以市场为基础的方法转变为将医疗保健作为公共产品的集体责任，这是基于对美国 2008 年总统初选期间提出的医疗保健改革建议的评估。文章认为，民主党人和医疗保健倡导组织在逐步推进、以市场为基础的改革方面达成的共识，忽视了公平、参与和问责制等问题。相反，新流行的共同责任概念将重新将权利与责任联系起来，从而加强保护和提供医疗保健的公共义务。文章最后介绍了由国家经济和社会权利倡议（NESRI）和国家卫生法律项目（NHeLP）运行的“人权医疗保健计划”，该计划旨在通过支持基层合作伙伴和盟友争取普及和公平的医疗保健，推动在美国承认医疗保健是一项人权。
