News

Advocates Call for Reframing the Health Reform Debate in Human Rights Terms

Two Online Calls for the Right to Health Care

With the national health care debate raging through the summer, two new online articles call attention to the need to reframe the fight for real health care reform in human rights terms.

In the August 20th article entitled "Reframing the Health Care Debate: Is it too late for human rights?", Desiree Evans, of Facing South, suggests that our country’s elected officials lag behind widespread grassroots support for economic and social rights like health care.  Evans goes on to say “Human Rights groups like Amnesty International and NESRI say that the current health crisis presents an opportunity for bringing a human rights perspective to domestic health policy — to shift the debate from health care as a commodity to health care as a human right.”  

In the August 19th article “Taking on the Right over Healthcare Reform: Lessons from Vermont,”  Jonathan Kissam, of the Vermont Workers’ Center, suggests that an organizing campaign for health care reform that is rooted in a commitment to the human right to health care will enable health care advocates to build a large and engaged base.  He goes onto to suggest that “placing the voices of people most affected front and center” and ensuring the leadership of those “who have suffered under the current system” will be key to building a real movement for universal health care and a just society.