Denial of the right of health

Health today gives cause for concern because it is precarious and accessible to only some privileged groups of people that are becoming fewer and rarer. In many countries, particularly developing ones, the health system consists of a few small islands in a sea of excluded people without access to health care in its most elementary form.

For a very large part of the population, health care is inaccessible because of its cost. The spread of serious diseases, the ease of their propagation and the resistance being built up by their vectors should lead to greater solidarity between the rich and the poor, since the security of the rich lies in providing for the health needs of the poor. The continents have grown closer together and no disease or human suffering can be contained within a State's borders.

The cost of health care is weighing heavily on the savings of families and the economies of States, whether large or small, developed or developing. Medical treatment is as expensive as the medication needed to treat the illness diagnosed. This situation puts the minimum needed for health beyond the reach of the most disadvantaged segments of society, namely, workers and their families, children, women and the elderly. For these groups of human beings, the right to health is an inaccessible luxury.