Health Care The Fourth Inaliniable Human Right.

HealthcareÐŽKÐŽKÐŽKÐŽK..The Fourth Inalienable Human Right

Submitted by

German Vargas

For

Professor Fossa-Andersen

April 1, 2005

HUMN 432

Contents

Introduction

Thesis Statement

Healthcare Statistics

What is Adequate Health and who is deserves the right to receive it?

Racism and Discrimination in Healthcare

Conclusion

Human Rights and Health

References and Works Cited

Introduction

Throughout the world, in countries rich and poor, people have no access to basic physical and mental healthcare nor to immunizations from infectious disease. Some people have no access because they lack the resources to buy and the state does not provide it. Others may be able to afford healthcare but because there are no services available in their communities they must do without it.

In some countries because of discrimination or social stigmas such as a personÐŽ¦s status as a prisoner, refugee, immigrant or a member of a lower class or caste they are deprived of this basic human right. However all people should have access to affordable universal healthcare. In a nation of such wealth and abundance, rights and freedoms, there is no justification for an individual to be without healthcare.

The ÐŽ§right to healthЎЁ extends to all things which promote health and well-being and prevent illness and disease, not just access to medical care. This includes, among many others, the right to education, food and shelter, to freedom from discrimination and persecution, to information, and to the benefits of science.

Every woman, man, and child has the human right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, without discrimination of any kind. Enjoyment of human right to health, is vital to all aspects of a personÐŽ¦s life and well-being, and is crucial to the realization of many other fundamental human rights and freedoms. The United States is the only industrialized country in the world in which healthcare is not a right of citizenship. As a result, the United States has the worst healthcare statistics in the industrialized world.

Thesis Statement

Poor health and inadequate health care are often related to human rights violations; violation that under fulfillment of human rights are often due to poor health and lack of access to health care. The link is direct in the case of other basic social and economic human rights such as the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself, and oneÐŽ¦s family. Nevertheless, poverty and lack of health protection are indirectly linked to failures to secure civil rights.

Some of the realizations of other human rights are not possible if an individual cannot maintain his/her own health. Most crucial health needs includes the prevention of stillbirths and infant mortality; the improvement of environmental and industrial hygiene, the prevention treatment, and control of diseases, with the provision of medical care to the sick.

Health and human rights are interconnected and the effects of violations of dignity and physical integrity on health (mental or otherwise) are as crucial as the effects of poor health on dignity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognizes that ÐŽ§The right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.ЎЁ Governments have obligations to respect, protect and fulfill the right to health as well as other human rights. Health is central to the person the stateÐŽ¦s commitment to the health of the population is a fundamental right; This is why todayÐŽ¦s Healthcare is believed to be the Fourth Inalienable Human Right.

Healthcare Statistics

Healthcare is further defined as ÐŽ§all those activities intended to sustain, promote, and enhance health.ЎЁ A few questions that are being raised in the local and state governments as well as governments abroad are: should all people have access to healthcare and should varying social factors affect our ability to receive healthcare? It is amazing that even in this century the government has no idea as to what we should do in regards to healthcare who should receive and why they should receive, and how much they should receive it we deem them worthy to receive it.

According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and estimated 42.6 million Americans are medically uninsured ; there is no estimated count for those who are in the United States illegally, of the 42.6 million approximately 25% are children. Children are less likely to be uninsured especially if they reside with adults (parents or guardians) who are uninsured, because of social factors such as their attitudes towards healthcare. It seems that there is a percentage of people who fall within a social class who donÐŽ¦t see the need to have healthcare until something happens, likewise there are those who want healthcare for themselves and their children but cannot afford the cost; but would have it if it were affordable or the government provided it.

A survey was conducted in 2003 as to whether or not it should be the governmentÐŽ¦s full responsibility to provide healthcare in the United States, of 31,773 respondents; 38% stated the government should definitely