A constitutional right to health care

Uruguay has it. So does Latvia, and Senegal. In fact, more than half of the world's countries have some degree of a guaranteed, specific right to public health and medical care for their citizens written into their national constitutions.   The United States is one of 86 countries whose constitutions do not guarantee their citizens any kind of health protection. That's the finding of a new study from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health that examined the level and scope of constitutional protection of specific rights to public health and medical care, as well as the broad right to health.   The study examined the constitutions of all United Nations member states and found the results to be mixed, despite the fact that all U.N. members have universally recognized the right to health, which is written into the original foundational document establishing the international body in 1948.The researchers reviewed the constitutions of all the member states as amended to two points in time: August 2007 and June 2011.   The report appears in the July issue of the journal Global Public Health.   The study also calls for regular and long-term monitoring of all countries' protection of health rights, whether or not such rights are written into specific country's constitutions.   That's because a constitutional definition of what health protection actually is varies widely between nations. Further, how such protections have been implemented varies widely,...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news