Thanks to proseandpromise for the shout-out and the encouragement to write this diary.
Health care IS your right. Not "should be". IS. Don't let anyone tell you different.
See, we in the US have the luxury of a strong Costitution and Bill of Rights. We complain -- rightly! -- about their erosion and their discriminatory application even in good times. But there are lots of places that don't have strong constitutions, or where even well-written constitutions are so poorly enforced they might as well not exist. People in those countries, the people I work with, look to international human rights law to protect them where their governments won't. But international human rights law applies here too -- not just "over there". And it confers on each of us a right to health care.
This diary isn't intended as a litigation guide. I don't want to offer false hope. It is basically impossible to enforce international human rights in our courts. But it's important that we know, so that when the wingnuts and the corporations poke and poke and poke and poke at us for daring to suggest that we guarantee health care to all our citizens, we can stand firm. Because what we're talking about isn't just a US policy concern. It's not just individual stories of hardship, though it's those as well.
Health care as a right is part of a conversation the world has been having for at least the past 60 years about what minimum (minimum!) governmental guarantees are required to safeguard basic human dignity. Nearly every country in the world, including the US, has recognized that access to health care is one of those guarantees.
So to those of you out there who don't have access to health care and feel ashamed, or marginalized, or angry because of it -- know that the world in its best moments recognizes that you are being cheated of something that should be yours by virtue of the inherent dignity of your humanity. Know that when you push this country to do better you aren't a crazy socialist left-wing loony. You are asking the US to live up to its best moments. Here are some of them:
The United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10, 1948 by a vote of 48-0 (including the US) with 8 abstaining. That day has become recognized as the birthday of the modern era of human rights.
At the time, the UDHR was considered to be asiprational. It was crafted to serve "as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations." Since then it has been imitated dozens of times over in treaties that cover a whole range on increasingly well-recognized human rights. More importantly, the UDHR has entered the rarefied ranks of customary international law. Not to get too pedantic, but there are basically two kinds of international law: treaties that bind only those countries that sign up and choose to be bound, and customary international law that binds all countries whether or not they sign up. Among other things, the UDHR provides that:
Article 25
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. [Hey John, look! No air quotes! -jfaustus] All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
This is binding law in the US.
But that's not all. So is the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which was written in 1965 and ratified by our very own Senate after a mere 29 years of consideration in 1994. Among other things, it says:
Article 5: In compliance with the fundamental obligations laid down in article 2 of this Convention, States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: Economic, social and cultural rights, in particular... The right to public health, medical care, social security and social services...
But that's not all, either. Other countries have been busy continuing the conversation without us.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the United Nations in 1979, 134-0 (including the US) with 10 abstentions. We haven't ratified it though. (Click here if you want to know who has. Highlights include Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.)
Article 12: States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning... States Parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation...
Article 14: States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, that they participate in and benefit from rural development and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right... To have access to adequate health care facilities, including information, counseling and services in family planning...
The same is true for the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It was passed in 1966 and became binding on those who signed up in 1976. We helped write it, voted for it in the UN, but wouldn't sign up ourselves. It says that:
Article 12
- The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
- The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for:
(a) The provision for the reduction of the stillbirth-rate and of infant mortality and for the healthy development of the child;
(b) The improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene;
(c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases;
(d) The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.
So when the rethugs shout at us for wanting universal health care, I want to ask them: Why do you oppose the consensus of nearly every country in the world about what is due to us as human beings?
Given the level of global agreement (there's much more than I cited here), shouldn't we be far done with "whether" and moving smartly onto "how"?