Human Right to Health caPACITY BUILDING COLLABORATIVE

Rising inequity in U.S. society and the failure to recognize economic and social rights play a significant role in the domestic health care crisis.  Our fragmented health care financing system is rife with problems that lead to a wide range of human right to health abuses.  The most visible is the 47 million people with no form of health insurance, the most distressing is the number of preventable deaths, estimated by some to reach 101,000 people a year, simply due to shortcomings in the way health care is organized in the United States. 

This crisis persists despite available resources to protect the right to health, and despite record levels of health care spending in the United States. Because social determinants, such as race, class and environment, strongly influence who becomes ill and who receives access to quality care, our health care crisis disproportionately affects under-resourced communities, such as immigrants, the working class and people of color.  However, lack of access to health care, health related debt and poor preventative care are prevalent across races and ethnic groups, and increasingly impact the middle class. Overall, the health care crisis reflects unethical and unchecked profit interests that devalue public health, human dignity and equality. This presents a compelling opportunity for bringing a human rights perspective to domestic health policy.      

As part of a Human Right to Health Capacity Building Collaborative, NESRI is working with NHeLP and other health advocates to develop analysis, provide information for public education, and cultivate opportunities for strategic collaboration to promote a health care system that respects and protects human rights.  

Other members of the Collaborative include the FXB Center on Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, Ipas, the Opportunity Agenda, and the Human Rights Implementation Project. Members are coordinating to develop policy analysis and training tools to support local organizations in their efforts to reform health care at the state level. 

The Program’s first state-based partnership is in Montana: we’ve been invited by the Montana Human Rights Network to support their campaign for health care reform from a human rights perspective. Reform efforts underway in Montana include public program expansions and local initiatives for universal health care. The Program is also supporting a “Healthcare is a Human Right” campaign in Vermont, led by the Vermont Workers’ Center.

For state-based advocates and organizations interested in learning more about a human rights approach to health care reform, please contact Anja Rudiger, the Program Director.

For information on other collaborative work on the human right to health, visit the U.S. Human Rights Network Right to Health Caucus page.