Author: Mike Magee

In my class this fall Hartford University President’s College, We first explore the word “correct” at the intersection of healthcare services and the U.S. Constitution.But we finally came to a crossroads in American history, taking into account conflicting federal and state laws, and exploring Social epidemiology, A branch of epidemiology that focuses on the impact of various social determinants of health on American citizens.

What makes the course timely and relevant is that we are revealing the connection between health and wellness. The construction or destruction of functional democracy At a moment in American history when our democracy was directly attacked.

This is an area that Eleanor Roosevelt is familiar with.She created the “Magna Carta of Mankind” she marked in 1948 for most of World War II—that is, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR.)“

A broader definition of health is embedded in the declaration.It reads “a state of complete physical, mental, and social health, not just free from disease or weakness.” The Marshall Plan to rebuild war-torn Germany and Japan embodied these principles and successfully established a stable democracy. nation Funding the National Health Plan As their top priority in these countries.

Although our country has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it does not assume any legal obligations or consequences. In fact, the prejudice of American medical institutions is to accept a much narrower definition of health-treating disease as enemy #1. They believe that if disease is overcome, health will follow.

In contrast, the neighbor Canada accepted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Remember, and ask yourself as a starting point, “How do we make Canada and all Canadians healthy?” When our country accepts huge profits and entrepreneurship and there is no room for unity, Canada accepts the tools of social justice and population health.

By 1966, the United States had passed medical insurance, providing medical insurance for all citizens over 65 years of age. In the same year, Canada passed a plan (also known as “medical insurance”) that covers all Canadian citizens.

The United Nations issued the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in the same year. Article 12 It is clear. It wrote:

1. The States Parties to this Convention recognize that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

2. The steps taken by the parties to this Convention to fully realize this right shall include:

“Reduce the stillbirth rate and infant mortality rate and promote the healthy development of children”;

“Improve all aspects of the environment and industrial hygiene”;

“Prevention, treatment and control of epidemics, endemic diseases, occupational diseases and other diseases”;

“Create conditions to ensure that all medical services and medical care are provided when you are sick.”

The idealism of the United Nations is influenced by realism. They use tag phrases to emphasize the so-called “standard of reasonableness” “The highest achievable standard” As the goal pursued by every country. They also recognize that a country’s cultural, economic, and social conditions can change, thereby affecting the speed at which certain goals aimed at meeting basic human needs, such as food, shelter, education, health care, and paid employment, can be achieved.

In 2005, I delivered a speech entitled “Why Health is Political” to a group of international leaders at the Library of Congress. It focuses on the social background in the fields of health, power politics, and law. At that time, more than 70 countries had ratified Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In the process, they promised to avoid retrogressive measures, reject discriminatory policies, curb unhealthy polluters, and develop active plans to deal with health disasters.

At that time, the United States (and still today) was missing during the operation. In the past and present, we are still the only industrialized country in the world without a universal health coverage plan.

Roosevelt has included this health protection as part of him “Second Bill of Rights”, But died in 1944. AMA and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PMA) then successfully marked Truman as a representative “Moscow party route.“

Today’s challenges are largely the same. American culture lacks a public identity, prefers individualism and tribalism, the labor movement is weak, does not trust its own government, and often regards its own constitution as a semantic exercise.

ICESCR, Article 12, Celebrate human rights As universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Where our tradition is individualism and transactional, their philosophy is holistic and committed to addressing human needs to break the shackles of fear and scarcity, which dominate in an authoritarian society that is indifferent or ineffective .

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a universal declaration of the United Nations General Assembly and does not impose any technically binding legal obligations on its signatories.

In contrast, ICESCR is Covenant– “A treaty that imposes legal obligations on all countries that ratify it in accordance with the rules of international law.” It was completed on December 16, 1966. President Carter finally signed the convention on October 5, 1977, but chose not to submit it to the Senate, which must give it “recommendations and consent” before the United States ratifies any treaty.

As of 2021, more than 170 countries have ratified the convention.this America Not one of them.

Mike Magee, MD is a medical historian and health economist, also “CodeBlue: Inside the medical industry complex.”