Anja Rudiger, NESRI Human Right to Health Director, published the following article, "Presidential Candidates Are Not Serious About Protecting Our Health" on the DMIBlog.

"As the primary season is heating up, the leading contenders get increasingly anxious to distinguish themselves from each other. During Monday’s Democratic debate the playground bickering over whose health care plan covers more people had some embarrassing "yes I do" – "no you don’t" – "yes I do" moments. If that did little to help distinguish their positions, that’s also because their plans are not, in fact, that different. At least it seems all Democrats are now in favor of universal access to health insurance. And even Republican candidates realize they need to do better than the Bush administration in securing our access to health care. Perhaps they have been prompted into action by an estimated 101,000 preventable deaths per year, which are attributed to shortcomings in the way health care is organized in the United States. As future president, any of the candidates would be obligated, according to human rights standards, to protect our health." Continue reading this article.