Their Citizens The Right To Adequate Healthcare example essay topic

Healthcare! K! K! K! K... The Fourth Inalienable Human Right Submitted by German Vargas For Professor Fossa-Andersen April 1, 2005 HUMAN 432 Contents Introduction Thesis Statement Healthcare Statistics What is Adequate Health and who is deserves the right to receive it? Racism and Discrimination in HealthcareConclusionHuman 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 person'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! SS right to health!" 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 person'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 one'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! SSThe right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. !" 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 state's commitment to the health of the population is a fundamental right; This is why today's Healthcare is believed to be the Fourth Inalienable Human Right. Healthcare Statistics Healthcare is further defined as! Small those activities intended to sustain, promote, and enhance health.

!" 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 don! |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 government's full responsibility to provide healthcare in the United States, of 31,773 respondents; 38% stated the government should definitely provide, 48% said they probably should provide, 10% said they probably should not, and 3% said the government should definitely not provide.

In this same survey another group was asked how much money should the government spend for families who could not afford healthcare; 69% stated more than what is currently being spent, 28% stated the amount being spent now should not change, and 4% stated there should be less spent. Studies have shown that among the sexes there is a wide variance as to healthcare assistance from the government; married and single females believe that the government should be responsible for providing healthcare for the sick, especially children; while males feel just the opposite, they feel it is the responsibility of the parent (s) to care for their child's healthcare. As well the social classes levels differ greatly when it comes to should the government provide healthcare, 51% of those in lower income brackets feel the government should provide healthcare for those who are unable to pay and 30% of those in higher income levels feel the same way. The United States ranks 18th in longevity, 16th in infant mortality, and around 67th in immunizations, all because our citizens can not access healthcare due to money. According to Health Resources Administration, sixty-five to seventy-five percent of all patients seen in a non-profit healthcare clinic live below the poverty level.

Money and good health have always gone hand in hand, and unfortunately the patients with the most money usually get the best care. Impoverished people either can! |t afford the services needed to survive, or the services provided are too primitive and unsanitary to do any good. Providing effective healthcare to low income families requires an understanding of the potential cultural difficulties, which may be faced. What is Adequate Health and who is deserves the right to receive it?! SSThe right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of oneself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.

!" The definition above is a blanket statement made by the Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) mainly because from state to state and country to country the standards of living vary, what is feasible in one place is definitely not in another, and the U.S. Government for some strange reason has not realized that even in this 21st Century. Oddly enough the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) defines adequate health in a similar way; ! SSThe right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest and attainable standard of physical and mental health!" ; two different organizations similar definitions, outcomes are the same but just like the government can! |t and don! |t work together for the good of the cause; Healthcare and those who desperately need it. Although again both organization are on a mission to help, their statements do not settle the issue, nor gives a clear thought of what is considered a! tandard of living!" and whether it should be assessed / compared to, with respect to the economic relations of a single nation or with respect to the global community. In some cases the highest attainable! tandard of living!" that a state or country can provide does not satisfy the existing consensus on the minimum health-related rights to which all people re entitled. Again once these two organizations can come together and decide what is considered what a standard of living is; they can focus all their energies on the governments and show them how to settle the issue and what they need to do.

There are states and countries who cannot provide adequate healthcare for the lower income population, based on the monies they receive from the government and the way the money is distributed in the states and countries; anyone who knows about government and financing will tell you the cities that don! |t have the representation of the council men and women will not receive the money they need to do anything in their communities / cities /states. According to current World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.7 million people die annually in developing countries from diseases resulting from lack of adequate healthcare, the U.S. doesn! |t want to give exact stats as to how many people die on U.S. soil for lack of healthcare, they are still playing the money crunching game, while lives are at stake. It seems that the U.S. government would be focused on ways to improve the basic standard of living all over the U.S. ; instead they keep bills on the senate floor with suggestions that have been given to representatives stating that money is the factor; when in fact other issues take precedence of the basic health of Americans. The WHO has suggested ways to improve the standard of living in developing countries (notice we are focusing on other countries, not even on U.S. soil, but we will focus on that a little later) and nation's immediate attention should be directed towards the following challenges:" X Increasing the distribution of clean water"X Establishing sanitary living conditions"X Maintaining sufficient food supplies"X Administering widespread vaccinations and medications"X Providing prenatal and maternal care"X Educating people about disease prevention and malnutrition The above suggestions are great and we can take anything from them, and they seem really basic, basic enough that they could be implemented in areas in the U.S. were they are having issues with healthcare. Some of these are established in states in the U.S. but they are not done on a level that is acceptable for those who are living in the areas; one word that is used in the above is! SS Maintaining!" and that is a big problem in the inner cities and the rural areas where healthcare is a big concern.

Those who are in charge of healthcare in these areas have no relationships with those they are assisting therefore; the standard of living is not where it should be. States and Countries have the responsibility to guarantee their citizens the right to adequate healthcare, but what they deem adequate and what those who are receiving the healthcare are not coinciding, this is where the international community must assume that responsibility to ensure that adequate healthcare is being administered and no one is being deprived; but in the U.S. things get placed on the back burners and those issues that are not important to the! SS higher social classes!" don! |t make big news here. Unfortunately those who live in poverty are given crumbs and told to live on that, its not until something affects those in the higher social class that immediate attention is brought to it, and changes are made over night, that will affect everyone; and those who have been crying out for! SS healthcare!" are now silenced and pushed back cause now we (government) will do something about it. Many Americans are in need of governmental assistance to help cover medical costs and needs.

The government is continuously examining the issues of the growing population along with the generation of rising baby boomer that will soon seek medical assistance. The two major forms of healthcare services are Medicare and Medicaid. Both programs are governmental programs aimed at assisting American citizens. Medicaid is a program designed to help the financially disadvantaged to receive medical care. Racism and Discrimination in Healthcare Discrimination is a quiet issue that affects healthcare, although it is known that it is happening in healthcare facilities no one says anything about it, it is openly practiced and accepted here in the U.S. ; a person's race, religion, sex and social standing affects what quality of healthcare they will receive.

Go to any public hospital you will immediately know the difference between those who have insurance and those who don! |t. Healthcare facilities sometimes explicitly denies care to specific groups at times and it is done as a practice not as policy, meaning those who are administering the care choose who they will allow care to be administered to. When these groups do go to the healthcare facilities they are not aware of what the policies are, and the facilitators play the waiting game with the person, or just flatly deny them care giving them some excuse that the person will not question. When and a particular group is not represented in the healthcare profession, clinics and hospitals are intimidating. This is a crucial issue facing the United States and those in the Healthcare field; not having equal access quality healthcare based on your race, sex, cultural, religion, and your social status. For too long this has continues to go unnoticed by those in authority and it has to stop.

This problem points to serious human rights violations. The county with the most developed body of knowledge related to racism and healthcare is the United States. In the U.S., whites are three times more likely to undergo bypass surgery than non-whites. Non-white patients seeking admission to nursing homes experience longer delays before placement than white patients. As well whites are taken care of quicker in emergency rooms than non-whites; even when neither have insurance to cover the cost have, this is when racism comes into place.

The research from the United States clearly demonstrates that within a country, racial barriers to quality healthcare may manifest themselves in a number of ways including: "X Disproportionate lack of economic access to healthcare"X Barriers to hospitals and healthcare institutions"X Barriers to physical and other providers"X Disparities in medial treatment"X Discriminatory healthcare policies and practices"X Lack of language and culturally competent care These factors contribute to! SS racially disadvantaged!" groups having disparities in health status and unequal access to healthcare services. Another issue related with healthcare is Women's right t Healthcare; in many countries women are still denied full participation in society and the protection of basic rights. Women work more than two-thirds of the world's working hours, yet earn less than ten percent of the world's income and own less than one percent of the world's property. The effects of discrimination on the health of women are devastating. Doesn! |t a woman deserve to be treated as a!

S SHuman Being!" and therefore have the same rights to healthcare? The enjoyment of this right is vital to their life and health and their ability to participate in all areas of public and private life. Women's health involves their emotional, social, and physical well-being, and is determined by the social, political and economic context of their lives, as well as by biology. To reach optimal health, equality, development and peace are necessary conditions. Human Rights and Health The connection between health and human rights violation is the exposure to dangerous environment. There is now clear evidence of the negative health effects resulting from changes in the global environmental landscape.

Uncensored burning of fossil fuels, the increasing reliance on vehicle transportation, the loss of many of the world's carbon sinks through deforestation, and the accompanying effects of global warming is having a dramatic effect on the heath of the world's population. Recent studies from the USA suggest air pollution is affecting fetal growth, and may even be causing DNA damage in unborn children. A report from the UK has linked an increase in brain diseases (such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's) to environmental factors such as car pollutants, and toxic chemicals like agricultural pesticides. The World Health Organization (WHO) claims over three million children die every year, mainly in the developing world, from diseases related to their environments. Health and development are intimately interconnected. Both insufficient development leading to poverty and inappropriate development can result in sever environmental health problems.

Conclusion The right to adequate healthcare operates directly or indirectly as a condition to all other human rights recognized, to deny someone healthcare is to deny or damage all that individual's rights. Without health individuals are denied their right to be contributing members of community and to provide for their families. Individuals who lack adequate healthcare can lose some or all ability to exercise fully the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights they possess. Everyone has the right to healthcare from the National Health Service, what this means is that no healthcare facility has the right to ever turn away anyone that needs care; but in reality it does happen daily, individuals are turned away or made to wait so long that hours and even an entire day will pass before and if the person is ever seen. The government has to come to some conclusion as to what stance they will take when it comes to healthcare, and how the uninsured will be taken care of.

Will we be a country who continues to turn its back on the least and left out, or will we take a stand and provide adequate healthcare for those who really can! |t afford it. In the U.S. budgets are designed with the poor in mind, yet the money that is allotted to assist them never materializes or finds its way to where it will be most useful. There is always some other issue that is more important than assisting those who need help. Healthcare continues to be a big issue on the floor of congress and in other countries, its amazing that the interconnection between health and human rights is not receiving the attention that it should, the gap between the is on a steadily incline, nevertheless it still does not get the attention that is should, nor the money it requires to do what can be done.

While the right to health in international law is often defined as the right to the! SS highest attainable standard of health!" , there are varying views still on its content, and this is the main problem and why it's still at a stand still. Supposedly the field of health and human rights has grown quickly, but it boundaries are yet to be traced; and the reason being that healthcare continues to be deliberated about but nothing is ever being done, it just remains an issue to be discussed not settled. The government doesn! |t want the American public to believe that we really don! |t care about those who are uninsured but in reality Americans already know it; everyone sticks their heads in the sand and pretends as if it is not happening, because it is not happening to them or anyone they know so therefore it does not exist; this is how governments as a whole think. Sadly there are countries that provide free healthcare to their citizens (Bahrain), not only to their own citizens but to those who have made their country their home. Why is it that America and other countries can! |t obtain the information Bahrain has and see if it will work for them / us ?

Ironically Cuba is another country that provides healthcare for its citizens but no one wants to be associated with a country known for being a communist country run by a dictator. Bottom line the issue of adequate healthcare is not going to just disappear, the government has to take a stand either make provisions for a standard of healthcare that will satisfy everyone or not provide any type of healthcare for anyone who can! |t afford it. A right to health is one of a range of socio-economic rights for which many states have accepted an obligation; ironically states have accepted the obligation and all they need to do is initiate the plans and follow through, but obviously the acceptance is merely talk to receive the finances for medical care and not provide the healthcare. Socio-economic rights are rarely given the same status as civil and political rights; translation healthcare is not important because it does not affect those who can make changes and be heard. Until the uninsured realize the power their votes yield and make those who are in place to speak for them do so, they will continue to be in the predicament they are in. Because they have no voice, even the organizations who attempt to speak for those who need adequate healthcare are not taken seriously because they too have no voice on the floor of congress and no money to buy lobbyist to present the issue.

There are those who believe that securing healthcare (Winkler, D. 2002) is a personal responsibility for the person who needs it. Mr. Walker stated! SS demanding individuals to secure their own health impinges on human rights!" , that would be OK if those he speaks of had the knowledge of what they needed to do to obtain healthcare for themselves, how do you tell a person who can! |t understand why they don! |t have healthcare they need to go about getting it themselves, they can! |t hear you, talk about an oxymoron. It is difficult to predict how the fulfillment of the right to adequate health will change in the future; but there have got to be changes made to what is already in existence or people shall surely perish for the lack of Adequate Healthcare. References and Works Cited Good economy but poor healthcare, Management consultants have warned: ! SS Ireland is a first world economy, but a third world healthcare provider; however, the lack of adequate healthcare is only part of the problem.

Health awareness must become top of the agenda and a core value so that prevention in the form of healthy living removes some of the need for! SS fire prevention!" style deployment of healthcare resources. web [posted: Friday 29/10/2004]! SSEveryone has the right to a standard of living adequate for! K. health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and the right to security in the event of! K sickness, disability! K Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance!

K!" Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25! SSEveryone has the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. States should take all appropriate measures to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, universal access to health-care services, including those related to reproductive healthcare! K. The role of women a's primary custodians of family health should be recognized and supported. Access to basic healthcare, expanded health education, the availability of simple cost-effective remedies!

Should be provided! K!" Cairo Programmed of Action, Article 28 web This website is from the Bahrain Brief a newsletter from the country of Bahrain; wherein it discusses how the were able to implement access to free healthcare for their citizens and to who no reside in their country. The challenges they will face concerning the population growths and cost of continuing free healthcare. They have been recognized for their accomplishment by the World Health Organization (WHO). web Mission statement by the New World Healthcare Solutions, Inc; what the Company's assignment is and what they hope to accomplish and who they hope to assist. Seeking out those in the health profession to help them to develop and deliver the highest level of products to patients. web Article discussing varying degrees of healthcare and human rights issue. web Ma habla, Kamayani, 2004.! SS Access to essential drugs- a human right!" An article about the access to basic medications as humans.

What is the perspective from a public health view? Further discusses different government issues and the lack of intervention from the government concerning diseases. web Website from the Trinity University where information contained with stats and data collected from National Opinion Research Centers, to the variance of healthcare and how groups of surveyors are knowledgeable about certain issues. web Website from the Family Village Community Health Care Center, and the Different programs they offer geared towards children. web The article discuss the rights of a traveler, and what you should know and expect as a traveler, that you can not be denied healthcare no matter what. What to do when accidents happen to you or others and what your responsibilities are. web AHC PR: Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Children's Health web State Children's Health Insurance Program web Laura Summer, Sharon Parrott and Cindy Mann on Budget and Policy Priorities: Millions of Uninsured Children are Eligible for MedicaidWikler, Daniel. 2002.!

SS Personal and Social Responsibility for Health!" Article that discusses Ethics and International Affairs, authors has ideas concerning healthcare issues and what needs to be done by those who need the healthcare, placing the entire burden on the individual and none on the government. Evans, Tony. 2002! SSA Human Right to Health?

!" Article that discusses the rationale for rejecting socio-economic rights and examines the basic rights challenge to such neoliberal arguments. Farmer, Paul. 1999.! SS Pathologies of Power, Rethinking Health and Human Rights!" Article discusses the fundamental dimensions of health rights and human rights are integral and important components of the evaluation of health insurance systems. web.