Health is a right? (by Jon Shaffer)
Posted by Peter Luckow on October 9, 2008
Jon Shaffer, the President of GlobeMed at Northwestern University, recently posted this fantastic entry on his blog:
Here is a really interesting post on The Health Care Blog by Maggie Mahar who rights on the Health Beat blog. In it she criticizes the use of rights language when talking about health care reform. Money quote:
"I have to admit I often have found the language of healthcare “rights” off-putting. Yet the idea of healthcare as a “right” is usually pitted against the idea of healthcare as a “privilege.” Given that choice, I’ll circle “right” every time.Still, when people claim something as a “right,” they often sound shrill and demanding. Then someone comes along to remind us that people who have “rights” also have “responsibilities,” and the next thing you know, we’re off and running in the debate about healthcare as a “right” vs. healthcare as a matter of “individual responsibility."
I vehemently disagree with her. Her main thesis is that rights language is not specific enough, and tends to polarize the discussion. In my opinion, it is exactly the type of language that we need to get things moving. The language of human rights is very specific. The only body that can guarantee rights to people are sovereign governments - no private entity can ever grant rights. For that simple reason, we must use rights language to describe health. Health care cannot be bought and sold on the open market because, by economic definition, there will be people who cannot afford the price set by the intersection of supply and demand. By casting access to reasonable health care as a human right, we can move beyond the idea that health is something that can be bought and sold, and move toward universal access.
Is this "shrill and demanding"? I certainly hope so. Guaranteeing all people the ability to see a doctor when they are sick is certainly one of the most pressing issues of our time.
Bucking the trend
Posted by Victor Roy on September 22, 2008
To leave, or not to leave? Unfortunately, that's not even the question for many medical students in sub-Saharan Africa. "How can I leave?" is more often the worry for so many promising medical professionals. With low pay, dangerous working conditions, and greater incentives elsewhere, more and more "would-be leaders" are leaving for Europe and the US.
Dr. Julian Atim, a graduate of Makarere's medical school in Uganda, is trying to buck the trend. She remains deeply committed, after losing both of her parents to HIV/AIDS in Uganda, to developing a stronger public health infrastructure in her home country. Building the infrastructure for medical training and retention which can produce more stories like Julian's is absolutely necessary.
While other solutions for addressing the problems created by the brain-drain also need to be explored - and we'll do that here in coming posts - how do we create an environment where educated professionals will want to stay on the African continent
Horizontal, vertical, or diagonal?
Posted by Victor Roy on September 8, 2008
Debates about the design and financing of public health programs can be heated. Do vertical, disease-specific programs, such as TB, malaria or HIV/AIDS interventions, miss the point? The development of "horizontal" health systems and infrastructure, capable of addressing a broader spectrum of diseases, many say, should be the goal. A disease-specific emphasis, however, has been more effective at bringing billions of new $$$ to the table for global health, through schemes such as the Global Fund for HIV, TB, and Malaria and President Bush's AIDS program, PEPFAR.
More and more, people are seeing both sides of the argument. That's why the "diagonal" is in. Partners in Health's Dr. Joia Mukherjee puts this emerging perspective clearly:
"Interest in and money for AIDS allowed us to rehabilitate basic health infrastructure in Haiti's central department. Our philosophy was that we could not find AIDS cases or treat them if clinics stood understaffed, empty and without essential medicines. Thus, the investment in AIDS became our Chwal Batay, or battle horse-a tool to bring us into a larger battle against poverty, inequality and poor health."
Global health blogging
Posted by Peter Luckow on August 25, 2008
Relative to other topic areas, there are few individuals or organizations running global health blogs. But, of the few global health blogs on the internet, nearly all of them are worth checking out.
Here are some of my favorites:
- Global Health Report - Christine Gorman: "Join longtime health journalist Christine Gorman in the search for what works, what doesn't and what needs to happen next in global health."
- Global Health Policy Blog - Center for Global Development: "Global Health Policy is a group blog discussing the issues facing the donor community on everything from HIV/AIDS financing to pharmaceutical R&D to broader health systems concerns."
- Physicians for Human Rights Student Blog: Stay up-to-date with the initiatives of the Physicians for Human Rights student groups across the country. Their posts center around the three big PHR student campaigns: AIDS, Darfur, and Health & Human Rigths education.
- Global Health Delivery Blog: "The Global Health Delivery (GHD) Blog is the GHD team’s “staging area” where we share the latest news and updates on the GHD Project, and where we hope to exchange views and foster new partnerships and synergies."
- Technology, Health, and Development Blog: "Our goal is to document solutions and exchange ideas on innovative projects in global health."
Stay tuned at globemed.org/blog as we continue to develop the GlobeMed Blog into a key place on the internet for global health news, debates, and discussion.
