World Health Day: Health is a Human Right
April 4-10 is National Public Health Week.
Join American Public Health Association (APHA) and Healthy Acadia in celebrating the many public and private spheres working together to make individuals, families, communities, and our nation healthier, stronger, and more resilient. This year’s theme is, “Public Health is Where You Are.”
Each day this week, we are highlighting a community health program or sharing an inspiring story from a community member or partner that aligns with APHA’s theme of the day.
Where we live impacts our communities’ health, and each one of us has a role to play, for our own health, and the health of our community as a whole. Together we make health happen.
World Health Day: Health is a Human Right
“At least half of the world’s population can’t access basic health services such as seeing a doctor, getting vaccinated or even receiving emergency care. Even in wealthier regions, households are spending at least 10% of their budgets on health-related expenses. Many households are pushed further into extreme poverty due to high out-of-pocket health care costs. These issues are made even worse during a health crisis such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Studies show poverty and poor health outcomes are closely linked. When faced with financial hardship, people must decide between their daily living expenses versus their health needs. As a result, they are more likely to go without necessary care such as consulting with a doctor or getting a prescription.” - American Public Health Association, National Public Health Week 2022
The Healthy Acadia team recently participated in an activity designed to help us explore what health is and whether and how health is a human right. We’re sharing a few thoughts from team members here.
“The goal of health, and the meaningful ability to strive for health, should absolutely be basic human rights. The World Health Organization offers this definition of the word “health”: a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.
It’s unlikely that any of us will achieve complete well-being across every facet of our lives for any extended period of time. Things come up every day that challenge our physical, mental, and social well-being: some challenges are temporary and some become chronic. But it’s the hope of achieving a state of well-being that makes it possible for us to keep going when our well-being is challenged.
When people are stripped of the hope of well-being, it’s more difficult for them to live full lives, more difficult to self-actualize, more difficult to meet their own basic human needs, and more difficult to keep going. That hope is, in a way, what makes us human. ”
“Health care is not a commodity or privilege, but a human right. No one should face bankruptcy or death because of lack of healthcare. All humans regardless of their health, race, or inhabited status, should be able to access the healthcare they need, whenever they need it.
I believe the greatest gift you can give to your family and communities is a healthy vibrant you, physically and mentally.”
“According to Article 25, section 1 of the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Universal Rights, “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.”
However, what’s a more accessible- in that it feels more personal- thought for me is that health is foundational to all other things: if we have a loving family and appropriate clothes and a rewarding employment and healthy food and so on, but live everyday in constant (or even occasional) pain, the import of these other things will pale in comparison.
Health is a human right, in part because it is a foundational need- foundational to our existence- and no one is justified in denying others access to these things, not in pursuit of wealth, social standing, or ambition of any sort, nor out of fear, desperation, or deprivation. ”
Is health a human right?
Let us know what you think. Share your comments on our Facebook page under today’s related post.
Together we make health happen.
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