Human right to health resolution adopted at the USSF
At the 2010 US Social Forum, held in June in Detroit, several events focused on the human right to health in the United States. Activists from around the country came together to agree a set of principles and draft a resolution for the human right to health.
Resources online now:
The resolution agreed by the People’s Movement Assembly for the Right to Health:
The statement of principles agreed by the organizations sponsoring the PMA:
A video of NESRI’s human right to health workshop, featuring three campaigns for the right to health in the U.S.
From the statement of principles:
"We believe that health and health care are fundamental human rights that guarantee all human beings, regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, language, income, religion, sexuality, age, or disability, full, equal and comprehensive access to health and health care.
We recognize the overwhelming evidence that the profit-driven, market-based U.S. health system denies us the human right to health care. We believe that health care is a public good and must be shared equitably. It must not be treated as a commodity sold for private gain. Privatization of health care funnels public money to private interests instead of meeting people’s fundamental needs. Therefore, we oppose the trend of privatization, including the privatization of Medicare and Medicaid and the inclusion of privatization directives in international trade agreements, and instead seek to replace the market-based system with a national public health care system founded on the principle that health and health care are human rights.
We believe that single-payer public financing of health care and a progressively financed single standard of comprehensive quality health care for all are prerequisites for achieving the human right to health and health care.
We deplore that people living in poverty have poorer health outcomes than others, lacking access not only to health care but also to the living conditions that enable good health. We are committed to changing the inequitable, regressive financing of our market-based health system, which enables wealthier people to be healthier and impoverishes others by making access to care dependent on payment.
We recognize that in order to eliminate preventable deaths, needless suffering, and economic injustice and impoverishment of human beings, we must take action to realize the human right to health and health care.
We believe that the federal and state governments must fulfill their obligation to ensure that the health system satisfies the human right to health and health care."