Should healthcare be a universal right?

Healthcare for all needs three things working together—a law guaranteeing the right to healthcare; universal health coverage to pay for it; and a focus on primary care to deliver it effectively. Each part should strengthen the others, creating a system that prioritises people’s health, not profits.At a time when cash transfers seem to have become the preferred solution to the state providing citizens with assured access to basic entitlements, the right to health is proving to be something of an exception. A pandemic that exposed the capacities and inequities of health systems the world over might be an important part of the reason. But the space for engagement has also been activated in some Indian states. Assam and Rajasthan have moved legislation on the subject, while others such as Tamil Nadu are debating the need for an act.

Most policy conversations around the right to health, however, are plagued by grave doubts. Often, the scepticism is expressed in somewhat vague terms. A common refrain is that that a rights-based approach has inherent limitations. However, one encounters three serious concerns.