Access to healthcare - as fundamental right or a privilege? (ჯანდაცვაზე ხელმისაწვდომობა, როგორც ფუნდამენტური უფლება თუ პრივილეგია?)
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Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Press
Abstract
Understanding health as a human right creates a legal obligation on
government to ensure access to timely, acceptable, and affordable health care
of appropriate quality. Health and health care can not be considered only as a
personal responsibility, because due to its socio-economic nature, the demand
for it is often not only individual, but also social (“public goods” in the medical
market) and requires the consolidation of consumers funds. Peculiarities of the
medical market, such as risks and uncertainty, incomplete information, limited
competition, external effects, production of public good, lead to special forms
of economic relations in the medical market, which require the development
of appropriate regulatory mechanisms. In European countries, where financing
of health care is completely divorced from actuarial principles, the individual’s
financial contribution to health does not depend on his or her health risk.
Consequently, there is a universal healthcare principle that covers the entire
population, where every citizen has the right of access to health services, which
promotes solidarity between them.
Employment, education and income are important factors influencing
access to medical care. Some people have low access to health services due to
various factors. The question arises as to whether the intervention necessary
to assist them in obtaining such access should be considered a privilege, or a
right. Viewing health care as a human service is not only done for humanistic
and ethical reasons; it may also be done for pragmatic reasons. Other countries
provide health care as a basic human right for utilitarian reasons. That is,
universal access is provided not only because it benefits the individual but
because it benefits the society by helping to ensure a productive workforce and
promotes solidarity among its citizens. Thus, it has been determined by natural
laws, and natural rights that human beings have the right, not the privilege, to
healthcare access.
Description
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Keywords
Healthcare, human rights, healthcare right, universal healthcare
Citation
Economics and Business, №4, 2020, pp. 113-129