The Right to Health at the Public/Private Divide
A Global Comparative Study

A comparative study covering all continents, this book explores the role of health rights in advancing greater equality through access to health care.

Colleen M. Flood (Edited by), Aeyal Gross (Edited by)

9781107038301, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 April 2014

512 pages
23.1 x 15.7 x 2.8 cm, 0.8 kg

'Judicial analyses of each nation's interpretation of the right to health, paired with the editors' thoughtful investigations make this book a compelling read for those interested in the intersection of health care and human rights.' Health and Human Rights Journal

Through a comparative global study of countries from all continents representing a diversity of health, legal, political, and economic systems, this book explores the role of health rights in advancing greater equality through access to health care. Does health care promote equality, or does it in fact advance the opposite result? Does inserting the idea of 'the right to health' into health systems allow the reinsertion of public values into systems that are undergoing privatization? Or does it allow for private claims to be re-articulated as 'rights', in a way that actually reinforces inequality? This volume includes studies from countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, The Netherlands, China, and Nigeria, among many others, and authors with expertise in the legal and health systems of their countries, making this a seminal study that allows readers to see the differing role of rights in various health systems.

Introduction: marrying human rights and health care systems: contexts for a power to improve access and equity Colleen M. Flood and Aeyal Gross
Part I. National Public Health Systems (Tax Financed): 1. Litigating a right to healthcare in New Zealand Joanna Manning
2. The right to health in Sweden Anna-Sara Lind
3. Litigating health rights in Canada: a white knight for equity? Colleen M. Flood
4. Promoting access and equity in health - assessing the National Health Service in England Chris Newdick
Part II. Social Health Insurance Systems: 5. Colombia's right to health litigation in a context of healthcare reform Everaldo Lamprea
6. Health rights in Israel between solidarity and neo-liberalism Aeyal Gross
7. Health care access in the Netherlands: the true story Andre den Exter
8. Addressing equity in health care at the public-private intersection: the role of health rights enforcement in Hungary Maria Eva Foldes
9. Lending a helping hand: the impact of constitutional interpretation on Taiwan's national health insurance program, health equity and distributive justice Y. Y. Chen
Part III. Mixed Private/Public Systems: 10. Health rights at the juncture between state and market: the People's Republic of China Christina S. Ho
11. The role of rights and litigation in assuring more equitable access to health care in South Africa Lisa Forman and Jerome Amir Singh
12. Provision of health care services and the right to health in Brazil: the long, winding and uncertain road to equality Mariana Prado
13. A vision of an emerging right to health care in the United States: expanding health care equity through legislative reform Allison Hoffman
14. The legal protection and enforcement of health rights in Nigeria Remigius Nwabueze
15. Litigating the right to health in Venezuela: a non-justiciable right (?) in the context of a deficient health care system Oscar A. Cabrera and Fanny Gómez
16. Right to health in India: addressing inequities through litigation Anand Grover, Maitreyi Misra and Lubhyathi Rangarajan
Conclusion: context for the promise and peril of the right to health Colleen M. Flood and Aeyal Gross.

Subject Areas: Medical & healthcare law [LNTM], International human rights law [LBBR], Law [L]