Carina Vance — The Right to Health in Ecuador

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.”...

By placing health back in the realm of public service, the constitution has freed it from the market forces that governed it over the past decades. The exercise of human rights is the departure point in this historic process. Now it is up to the state to ensure that universal access to healthcare becomes a reality by setting up an integrated public network of medical services and consolidating the national health system.

Counterpunch

The Right to Health in Ecuador

Carina Vance

See also Kathleen Peddicord, Full Medical Coverage For Just $70 Per Month -- New Health Care Option For Residents Is One More Reason To Think About Retiring To Ecuador