The American Right to Health

Abstract

human right to health has strong American roots. In his 1944 State of Union address, not long before D-Day, Franklin Roosevelt told Congress, We have come to a clear realization of fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. He called on Congress to adopt a second Bill of Rights, a bill of economic security, which included The right to adequate medical care and opportunity to achieve and enjoy good President Truman continued FDR's fight for right to health, telling Congress in his 1948 State of Union address--the same year Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by United Nations--that Our first goal is to secure fully essential human rights of our citizens. Regarding health, Our ultimate aim must be a comprehensive insurance system to protect all our people equally against insecurity and ill In 1965 President Johnson traveled to Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, to sign Medicare into law in Truman's presence as a tribute to his dedication to this cause. In their thoughtful essay, Bioethics and Human Rights: Access to Health-Related Goods, John Arras and Elizabeth Fenton persuasively argue that only a political process can adopt and implement right to health. FDR, Truman, and Johnson would certainly agree. Although American-born, right to health has had much more support internationally than domestically. A 1947 report of UNESCO's philosophers' committee, for example, listed fifteen norms that it found were widely shared by cultural and religious traditions (including Confucian, Islamic, and Hindu traditions) around world, including the right to protection of Since UDHR was adopted, we have become accustomed to having human rights declared internationally by treaty and thereafter promulgated nationally by legislation that enacts specific entitlements. In this framework, a national health care plan of kind proposed by Roosevelt and Truman (and now by President Obama) would be a statutory enactment of America's vision of right to health. No specific insurance scheme, delivery system, or benefit package is required by international right to health, but a national health plan must be universally accessible. Senator Ted Kennedy predicted to thunderous applause at Democratic National Convention that Barack Obama would break old gridlock and guarantee that every American will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just as a privilege. …