The Right to
HEALTH CARE OF EQUAL HIGH QUALITY
There are 45 million Americans with NO health insurance, and almost that many UNDERinsured. We spend 15%, or $1.5 trillion of our $11 trillion GNP, on health care, yet the world’s wealthiest nation only ranked 37th among 191 nations’ health care systems analyzed by The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000.
We are the only industrialized democracy in the world that doesn't have some SYSTEM of national health care for ALL of its citizens. This is not about lack of resources. It’s a lack of political will.
Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. - believing that HEALTH CARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT - has proposed to add a health care amendment to the U.S. Constitution based on the RIGHT of all Americans to have health care of equal high quality. It was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives as H.J. Res. 30:
"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), that the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:
'SECTION 1. All citizens of the United States shall enjoy the right to health care of equal high quality.
'SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to implement this article by appropriate legislation.
Attorney General John Ashcroft sent a letter to the National Rifle Association asserting that every American has a constitutional RIGHT TO A GUN. In it he wrote: "Let me state unequivocally my view that the text and the original intent of the Second Amendment clearly protect the right of individuals to keep and bear firearms." However, there's NO RIGHT to HEALTH CARE in the Constitution?
The 10th Amendment to the Constitution states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the State, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Since the words "health care" do not appear in the Constitution, health care is a "state right." Only a constitutional amendment gives citizens an individual right to health care. Individual Americans are left with the option of appealing to the political will of Congress and state legislatures, presidents and governors, and so far they have failed to provide such a system.
Our "states' rights" health care system is
If Americans had a choice between the RIGHT TO A GUN and the RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE, it would be nearly unanimous. Americans would choose health care! If that is the priority of the American people, then we should have the wisdom and political will to codify it in the form of a constitutional amendment.
Why fight for human rights and constitutional amendments? Because they are non-partisan (they're neither Democratic nor Republican), they're non-ideological (they're not liberal, moderate, or conservative), and they're non-programmatic (they don't require a particular means, approach or program to realize them). They're also not a "special interest."
If we pass a new health care amendment, the next civil rights movement will emerge fighting for congressional legislation - while also using the federal courts - to implement the Health Care Amendment.
In a manner befitting the marine code on the battlefield, when it comes to health care, "we should leave no American behind."
Speeches and articles:
- December 9, 2004: A Health Care Constitutional Amendment: Its Meaning And Implications
Additional material:
- Congressman Jackson on health care
- A Health Care Constitutional Amendment: Its Meaning and Implications
- Jun. 4, 2003: IPHCA Endorses Jackson's Health Care Amendment
