JAMA
December 15, 2010, Vol 304, No. 23, pp 2559-2658
http://jama.ama-assn.org/current.dtl

Commentaries
The Right to Health as the Unheralded Narrative of Health Care Reform
Eric A. Friedman,
Eli Y. Adashi

JAMA. 2010;304(23):2639-2640.doi:10.1001/jama.2010.1845

Extract (per JAMA convention)
In passing the Affordable Care Act, the United States took a giant, if partial, step toward joining other nations wherein the right to health constitutes an inalienable moral and legal right. Although not widely appreciated, the right of every person to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health 1 (the right to health for short) is not merely an abstract moral imperative. Rather, it is an established international legal precept still to be fully embraced in the United States. Even though the right to health was overshadowed during the health care debate by other narratives, such as insurance reform, cost control, and care delivery, this right remains a central if unheralded narrative of the Affordable Care Act and its legacy. What is this right that engenders these bold claims? It is an assertion of the responsibility of governments to strive for “the highest attainable standard of physical …