Health Care is an Economic Human Right Toolkit

What is this toolkit used for?

This toolkit is designed as a set of tools to understand healthcare and our human rights. The toolkit can be used by community groups, labor organizations, or any other public or private forum in which people are curious about how to more effectively fight for our human right to healthcare. Pass out the information at public events, conduct trainings with upcoming leaders, adapt the tools included to reflect the issues in your area, and supplement the toolkit with articles of local current events. Send us the work you do and we’ll do the same! Together we can move on to a single standard of care that is universal healthcare for all!

Each tool can be used individually or in combination with other tools in order to carry out whatever specific work you are trying to do. For instance, training on “women and healthcare” might use our “Women & Poverty” fact sheet in combination with the “Reproductive Rights” fact sheet and they might both be used with the Healthcare Human Rights Violation Addendum Form to document the human rights violations experienced by the women using the tools. Training on healthcare policy debates may simply use the activities designated by the Debs-Jones-Douglas Institute in combination with a selection of articles on recent policy debates.

What is inside the toolkit?

“Healthcare is an Economic Human Right” fact sheet	“Reproductive Rights and Healthcare Access” fact sheet
“Women, Poverty and STDs” fact sheet	“7 Points of Unity in the Fight for Healthcare as a Human Right” or Check list for Health Justice
“Recovery is our Economic Human Right” fact sheet	“Foster Youth & our Economic Human Rights” fact sheet
“Women and Economic Security” fact sheet	“Poverty in California” fact sheet
“Food is an Economic Human Right” fact sheet	Healthcare and human rights- Power Point Presentation
Just Health Care Training Booklet (Excerpts)	Just Health Care - Timeline
The Banks Are Coming	Counting the Poor
The Slippery Slope of Market-Based Medicine	Study Says H.S.A More Costly for Women
Medi-Cal Facts & Figures: A look at California Medicaid Program-CHCF.org	Summarizing State Models that Support Health Care as a Human Right
World’s Richest 1% Own 40% of All Wealth	Massachusetts Plan & Individual Mandate
Economic Human Right Violation Form	Health Care Addendum- Survey on Human Rights
Truth Commission on Health Care/ How To's	Curriculum using Human Rights, Poverty Elimination, Workers Rights & Just Health Care considerations.
Public Policy Descriptions on Health Care Trends – National, State, and Local	Media How To’s – Youth Media Council Communicate Justice 101: PREVIEW!

What are the principles that guide the use of this toolkit?

1)  Healthcare is a human right, not a benefit or privilege.
2)  We must organize for the change that we hope to see.
3)  Poor and working people have the biggest stake in winning quality universal healthcare. They should be at the helm of efforts for change.
4)  Everyone who wants to be at the table for quality universal healthcare has a place at the table.
5)  There is an answer to the healthcare crisis. What is lacking is the political will to fight for solutions.
6)  In order to win and protect true healthcare reform, we must be educated and continue to educate others on the healthcare crisis and its solutions.

What are the elements of a successful Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign?

This toolkit will educate you on the healthcare crisis and its solutions. It is not enough, however, to be educated. That knowledge must be passed on, amplified, and spread. Some ideas that have been successful in our work include:

• Hold Community Forums and Hearings, especially Healthcare NOW’s citizen’s hearings on national universal healthcare legislation (www.healthcare-now.org)
• Distribute Fact Sheets
• Document Healthcare and Human Rights Violations at public events, clinic waiting rooms, protests, homeless outreach centers, union meetings, etc.
• Supplement local healthcare struggles with a broader human rights framing
• Speak out on healthcare and human rights

"We, the poor, jobless, downsized, uninsured victims of welfare reform and others abused by the institutions of domination are no longer silent. We are moving forward with the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer and so many freedom fighters to improve the lives of Americans."

-Portia Anderson, WEAP