The Right to Health in Ecuador

[Judi Lynn]

January 15, 2014
A Constitutional Aim

The Right to Health in Ecuador

by CARINA VANCE

After two decades of social and political upheavals that nearly bankrupted the government on several occasions, Ecuador is now enjoying the most stable period in its history. This new calmer context has enabled the country to break with the priorities of previous governments. Rafael Correa’s government has rehabilitated public services, placing fundamental issues such as education and health, previously the preserve of the technocrats, back at the core of politics and citizenship.

Ecuador’s new constitution, approved by referendum in 2008, gives an important place to public health. It recognises the need for a far-reaching structural reform of the sector, not only the government’s management of it, but more broadly its many social, economic and cultural ramifications through a radical review of the country’s health policy based on a new social contract.

Article 32 of the new constitution states: “Health is a right guaranteed by the state and whose fulfilment is linked to the exercise of other rights, including the right to water, food, education, sport, work, social security, a healthy environment and everything that promotes well-being. The state shall guarantee this right by implementing economic social, cultural, educational and environmental policies. It shall guarantee permanent, timely and non-exclusive access to programmes, actions and services promoting and providing comprehensive healthcare and reproductive health. The provision of healthcare services shall be governed by the principles of equity, universality, solidarity, interculturalism, quality, efficiency, effectiveness, prevention, and bioethics with a fair gender and generational approach.”

Article 32 highlights the government’s multi-disciplinary approach. In addition to direct action, the goal is to combine healthcare policy with various related social issues — such as access to potable water — and lay down some fundamental principles to guide the state in the management of its services.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/15/the-right-to-health-in-ecuador/

[sabrina 1]

1. I envy them. Correa is a good leader. I wish we had that kind of leadership, that recognizes human

rights, as the FFs laid out. The right to 'LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. Here that only applies to the 1%.

Rafael Correa’s government has rehabilitated public services, placing fundamental issues such as education and health, previously the preserve of the technocrats, back at the core of politics and citizenship.

Article 32 of the new constitution states: “Health is a right guaranteed by the state and whose fulfilment is linked to the exercise of other rights, including the right to water, food, education, sport, work, social security, a healthy environment and everything that promotes well-being. The state shall guarantee this right by implementing economic social, cultural, educational and environmental policies. It shall guarantee permanent, timely and non-exclusive access to programmes, actions and services promoting and providing comprehensive healthcare and reproductive health. The provision of healthcare services shall be governed by the principles of equity, universality, solidarity, interculturalism, quality, efficiency, effectiveness, prevention, and bioethics with a fair gender and generational approach.”

It almost sounds like FDR's Bill of Rights. Good for them.

[Judi Lynn]

2. The right-wing wouldn't be able to cope with this constitution!

We also remember there was a powerful group of people who had planned to overthrow FDR, plotted and schemed to remove him through a coup.

Glad they weren't able to pull it off, too, in his case.

Hooray for the democrats of this world.

Correa has been on the #### list of the US right-wing from the first.