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The right to preventive health care

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics volume 37, pages 307–321 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

The right to health care is a right to care that (a) is not too costly to the provider, considering the benefits it conveys, and (b) is effective in bringing about the level of health needed for a good human life, not necessarily the best health possible. These considerations suggest that, where possible, society has an obligation to provide preventive health care, which is both low cost and effective, and that health care regulations should promote citizens’ engagement in reasonable preventive health care practices.

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Notes

  1. See, for example, Henry Shue [1] and the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

  2. I do not know that this is Shue’s own position.

  3. I refer to the recipient and the provider separately, but of course these are not usually two distinct sets of people: most of us are in a position where we would be both providers and recipients, in any system of publicly-provided health care. It is not a system where one distinct group provides for another, or at least an individual in that situation would be rare.

  4. See Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein [22]; see also Sarah Conly [23].

  5. See Jimmy Tobias [24]. The article states that “Under a 2008 revision to New Hampshire law, any person who acts ‘negligently in requiring a search and rescue response’ is liable to pay for it. The state deemed Bacon [the rescued party] negligent because he went into the woods despite a history of hip problems and a high likelihood of bad weather. Bacon fought the department’s decision all the way to the state Supreme Court, which ruled against him in April.”

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Bowdoin College, 8400 College Station, Brunswick, ME, 04011, USA

    Sarah Conly

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  1. Sarah Conly
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Correspondence to Sarah Conly.

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Conly, S. The right to preventive health care. Theor Med Bioeth 37, 307–321 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-016-9374-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-016-9374-8

Keywords

  • Health care
  • Rights
  • Prevention
  • Regulation
  • Obesity
  • Cost-benefit