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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Health Care is a Human Right!

Health Care is a Human Right!

No One Should Be Denied Health Care

The Health Equity and Accountability Act needs MORE Sponsors and MORE support. This important proposal (H.R. 3014), dealing with the disparities and discrimination in our nation's health care system, is sponsored by Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.). It is an important first step to ensuring that everyone, regardless of their economic, racial and legal status or family circumstances, has health care.

ACT NOW

Action Needed:

The health and well being of people living in our nation, including low income families, racial minorities, legal immigrant children, and the rural poor in our country cannot and must not be ignored! We MUST act now to help correct the inequities in health care that millions of people face every day. Many minorities have higher rates of infant mortality, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV infection/AIDS, cancer, and lower rates of immunizations and cancer screening. Legal immigrant children are being denied health care and millions of families in poor and rural communities have little or no health care at all. Our health care system needs fixing so that it can address these inequities and these needs.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Background:

Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) has introduced the Health Equity and Accountability Act (H.R. 3014), a bill to correct health care disparities and provide health care to the underserved and uninsured. Versions of this bill have been stalled for the last 6 years, but H.R. 3014 is now gaining steam with recent hearings in the Health subcommittees of both the House Ways and Means and House Energy and Commerce Committees. Help keep this momentum going! Contact your Representative and ask them to cosponsor this bill NOW. If they are already one of the 113 cosponsors, ask them to take a leadership role in promoting and passing this legislation. The higher the visibility and the larger the support for this bill in the House, the better chance we have for getting it passed, for getting an identical counterpart in the U.S. Senate and then getting the bill signed into law.

It isn't only high cost that keeps people from having health insurance and getting health care. Many health care professionals, medical facilities, and health insurance providers inadvertently pose cultural and linguistic barriers to people with diverse cultural, ethnic, and language practices. 36% of Asian and Pacific Islander women under 65, 20.5% of all blacks, and up to 41% of Latinas don't have health insurance. 25% of all Latinas haven't even seen a doctor in the past year! For those living in rural areas, health care is almost unavailable because of the shortage of rural doctors combined with the long distances people must travel to find medical services. There is also a severe lack of diversity in medical research studies. Many times studies are done without minority subjects, making it hard for health care providers to assess the needs of minority patients without accurate data to reference. Work needs to be done to explore the biological differences of patients with varied ethnic and racial backgrounds, in order to ensure proper medical care.

Minorities and those living in poor rural areas are also disproportionately affected by exposure to environmental health hazards. Often toxic power plants and other industrial centers are built in low income areas with the expectation that nearby residents will be unable or unwilling to mount a campaign to criticize these health hazards. Action needs to be taken NOW so that your zip code doesn't determine your life expectancy!

Rep. Solis' bill works to correct these injustices. This legislation provides grants for strategies to eliminate racial and ethnic health care disparities. It requires health-related programs of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to collect data on race, ethnicity, and primary language. This bill also provides for the establishment of health empowerment zone programs in communities that disproportionately experience disparities in health status and health care. And it includes the Immigrant Health Improvement Act (ICHIA) proposals, which provide health care to legal resident children of immigrant parents who have been cruelly denied health care coverage under the State Children's Health Program (SCHIP) program that covers low income children whose parents cannot provide health coverage for them.

Contact your Representative TODAY and urge them to sponsor and support this bill to help protect the health of ALL low income and diverse families and to correct the disparities that prevent deserving people from getting the health care that they have a right to.

universal Health Care as in Canada England and France are the way to go. Insurance companies care nothing about people only profit. Universal Health Care is also less expensive then using Insurance Companies. Under United Nations Law Health Care (Article 25) is a right for all not just those who can afford it.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

UN Document Series Symbol: ST/HR/

UN Issuing Body: Secretariat Centre for Human Rights

© United Nations

Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A(III) of 10 Dec.1948.

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore,

The General Assembly,

Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11

1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.

2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.

2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17

1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.

3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. 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.

2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.


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