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Health is a fundamental human right for all citizens and it is the duty of all governments to ensure that right.

Principles

Public health care shall be provided in accordance with the following principles:

  • Universality: health care shall be available to 100 per cent of the population.
  • Accessibility: there shall be no barriers of access to health.
  • Comprehensiveness: health services shall include: medical, hospital, physician services, drugs, mental health, care for the frail, elderly and disabled, social security, and all social and ancillary services.
  • Affordability of drugs: governments shall ensure that medically necessary drugs are affordable for its citizens.
  • Integration: all health services and social security shall be a single integrated system designed to improve social determinants of health (e.g., economic condition, education, housing, environment, employment, working conditions).
  • Funding: health care shall be available to citizens at no cost with no user fees or extra charges.
  • Health as a common social good: health services shall not be treated as market goods and shall be delivered by public sector workers in not-for-profit facilities and settings.
  • Free collective bargaining: All health care workers shall have the right to form unions and to bargain collective agreements freely.

Demands

We demand:

  • All governments guarantee health for their citizens and provide health care in accordance with the above principles.
  • Health and health care services be excluded from all free trade agreements.

Actions

We support the following actions:

  • Promote International Health Workers’ Day on April 7 of each year with actions and campaigns in each country.
  • Take action collectively to protest trade agreements.
  • Continue to fight the privatization of health care in each of our countries.
  • Fight for public pensions and worker control of all pension plans.
  • Condemn regimes everywhere (but especially in Colombia) that seek to repress popular support for unions and public services for citizens.
  • Affirm our support for the Cuban people’s struggle to preserve their self-determination and condemn the genocidal embargo that they have been subject to for more than 40 years.
  • Express our solidarity and support for the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian Revolutionary Process.
  • Support a communications network, including a web site, to disseminate information.