Right to health at the public/private divide a global comparative study

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Marrying human rights and health care systems: Contexts for a power to improve access and equity / Colleen M. Flood and Aeyal Gross -- Litigating a right to healthcare in New Zealand / Joanna Manning -- The right to health in Sweden / Anna-Sara Lind -- Litigating health rights in Canada: A white knight for equity? / Colleen M. Flood -- Promoting access and equity in health: Assessing the national health service in England / Chris Newdick -- Colombia's right to health litigation in a context of healthcare reform / Everaldo Lamprea -- The right to health in Israel between solidarity and neo-liberalism / Aeyal Gross -- Health care access in the Netherlands: A true story / Andre den Exter -- Addressing equity in health care at the public-private intersection: The role of health rights enforcement in Hungary / Maria Eva Foldes.

Lending a helping hand: The impact of constitutional interpretation on Taiwan's national health insurance program, health equity and distributive justice / Y. Y. Chen -- Health rights at the juncture between state and market: The People's Republic of China / Christina S. Ho -- The role of rights and litigation in assuring more equitable access to health care in South Africa / Lisa Forman and Jerome Amir Singh -- Provision of health care services and the right to health in Brazil: The long, winding and uncertain road to equality / Mariana Prado -- A vision of an emerging right to health care in the United States: Expanding health care equity through legislative reform / Allison Hoffman -- The legal protection and enforcement of health rights in Nigeria / Remigius Nwabueze -- Litigating the right to health in Venezuela: A non-justiciable right (?) in the context of a deficient health care system / Oscar A. Cabrera & Fanny Gómez -- Right to health: Addressing inequities through litigation to lIndia / Anand Grover, Maitreyi Misra, Lubhyathi Rangarajan -- Conclusion: Contexts for the promise and peril of the right to health / Colleen M. Flood and Aeyal Gross.

"In 2006, a WHO survey found evidence of a substantial increase in patient-led litigation against health authorities and funders over access to medicines around the world. New Zealanders have seldom litigated denials of access to health care. Part of the explanation lies in the fact that New Zealand has a legislated patients' "bill of rights", with enforcement through a complaints mechanism. Although the separate regime does not afford patients substantive legal protection in respect of complaints about lack of access to care, this form of alternative, low-level resolution of health care disputes does condition disgruntled patients not to turn to the courts for legal redress in relation to their rights. But given the increasing need for prioritization arising from serious concern about the sustainability of the public health system, as well as a trend towards greater explicitness when it occurs, increased disappointment on behalf of patients and the public when care is denied or limited seems inevitable. This may well translate into increased patient-led litigation against health boards and funders. Part 1 provides an overview of the New Zealand health system, with a focus on the points at which resource allocation decisions are made, the identity of the decision-maker, and the methods by which priority-setting occurs. Part 1.1 describes inequalities between population groups in New Zealand, both in health outcomes and in access to health care. Part 2 describes the legal framework surrounding the health and disability sector, and discusses the lack of legislated rights to health and the limited right of access to health care in legislation, despite the existence of a legally enforceable Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights"--