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Current Positions of UHC Organizations on the "Right to Health Care"
Most of the currently recognized state grassroots UHC organizations have a strong focus on the "Right to Health Care". Thirteen of the twenty organizations represented on the homepage map at Project EINO homepage boldly claim this right on their own homepages, or in their mission.
At the moment a strategy in North Carolina which is aiming at passing a state constitutional amendment entitled "The Right to Health Care" and a legal (court case strategy) being pursued in Michigan by Michigan Legal Services are leading the states in employing grassroots strategies focused on this human right.
Note that beyond these 20 there are many more state organizations which work in the health policy arena and also proclaim that health care is a right. Unfortunately some of these advocate for UHC, but contend that eventually addition of incremental health reforms will amount to achieving UHC . Other state organizations advocate for UHC but do not mention the "Right to Health Care". Why don't all UHC advocating organizations support the "Right to Health Care"? How does demanding this right alter an organization's strategic approach to achieving the goal of UHC?
There are two major strategic approaches which are taken by grassroots UHC organizations - usually blended in some proportion. One is to focus on the "Right to Health Care", the other is to emphasize the economic advantages of having a UHC system (for individuals, businesses and society as a whole). Project EINO , like most organizations presents a blend of the these two approaches, however we always attempt to emphasize first and foremost, that "Health Care is a Right". We take this approach because we feel that education and mobilization of the greatest number of Americans will proceed more directly from working with those most disadvantaged and at-risk in the present system. These people know they need the to have health care as a right, since they have little chance of sharing in it as a privilege.
If you don't think there is a broad constituency consider that 3 out of every 10 Americans were without health insurance for some time during a recent two year period and that those with inadequate insurance (often excluding the care for known conditions with which they suffer) are at least as many again as those entirely without insurance , . And this majority of Americans (if it does amount to 6 of every 10) does not add in those who in the future are likely to lose their coverage if a tenuous job situation fails, or if a chronic illness returns (often exclusion riders are written for pre-existing conditions, stipulating that the insuree must go through a period of some length without treatment for the "pre-existing condition").
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UHC Advocates Who Fear the "Right to Health Care"
So, if there is a large number of Americans who are ready to support the "Right to Health Care" and if grassroots organizing needs the support of these people to pass legislation (or influence legislators) why do some UHC-advocates fail to promote the "Right to Health Care"? First, many advocates fail to appreciate the key role that
those who are underprivileged will play in achieving universal access to care. Physicians, in particular, while wishing to be recognized as advocates for the uninsured are often of the mind that it is the political influence of their colleagues (those they can convince) and themselves that will initiate legislative change (their organizations therefore are not authentically grassroots - as they do not reach into most communities).
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