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308512
Mapping the international evidence of the link between constitutional right-to-health guarantees and universal health coverage: A global analysis of nations' health insurance plans
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
: 8:43 AM - 8:56 AM
Amy Raub, M.S.
,
Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Isabel Latz, M.Phil.
,
Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Jody Heymann, M.D., Ph.D.
,
Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
A right to the highest attainable standard of health has been universally recognized as a human right by numerous important international conventions in the last six decades. So far, limited work has been done to examine constitutional protection of health rights and their relation to population health outcomes on a global scale. In addition, the analysis of how nations translate this right into impactful health policies is lacking due to previous lack of quantitatively comparable global data. In this paper we rely on official online sources and email interviews with country health policy experts to construct a global dataset of national health plans and to analyze the scope of health coverage. We also link these data with a database on the status of constitutional rights in 191 United Nations member states from the World Policy Analysis Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. This allows us to examine in which countries constitutional health guarantees are associated with policies that aim to provide adequate, accessible and affordable to all health care, and in which nations there are rights on paper but not in practice. Our analysis provides information necessary for tracking the progress and for identifying the gaps in the practical implementation of the rights to health worldwide.
Learning Areas:
Other professions or practice related to public health
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Learning Objectives:
Identify countries in which constitutional health guarantees are not realized through practical health policies.
Compare how national health care coverage varies across constitutional protection, national income group and region on a global scale.
Identify gaps in globally available data.
Keyword(s): Human Rights, Universal Health Care
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a postdoctoral fellow in comparative policy analysis at the UCLA World Policy Analysis Center. Among my scientific interests has been a global comparative analysis of constitutional right-to-health guarantees and health policies that make a difference for implementing universal health care.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
