Beyond the Market: Health Care as a Civil or Human Right? From the Amnesty International USA Blog
NESRI’s Human Right to Health Program has a new post on Amnesty International USA’s blog, Human Rights Now, cross-posted on The Huffington Post. Here are the first couple of paragraphs:
“A dramatic disconnect between principles and policies has hampered current U.S. health care reform efforts. This became obvious when candidate Obama declared health care to be a right and then proceeded to treat it as a commodity when negotiating with insurance companies a requirement for individuals to buy a commercial health insurance product.
Similarly, early on in the debate the president championed the principle of universality by promising some form of health coverage – if not necessarily health care – for 46 million uninsured people, only to lower the policy goal to 30 million American citizens in his speech before Congress, excluding many immigrants and low-income people. Since then, further policy provisions that restrict access to health coverage for immigrants – documented and undocumented – and reduce affordability for lower-income people have appeared in the health care bill adopted by the Senate Finance Committee.”
Read more here.