Topic: Healthcare as a Human Right
Country: Israel
Delegate Name: Betsy Hensel
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Israel position papers GLIMUN 2012 committees
Access to healthcare for citizens is a fundamental right. Providing proper health care for citizens is a reliable method to ensure internal and international prosperity. The State of Israel holds proper health care in high esteem. Israel signed and ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which outlines the rights of health entitled to all global citizens and has fully upheld the integrity of the treaty. Israel made great strides in providing Israelis with universal and complete health care with the National Health Insurance Law of 1955. The law provides that: each citizen is required by law to have health care in the form of a basket of services, health care must be of high quality, within reasonable distance of the patient, and within a reasonable time frame. Also, the health care provided is under constant government supervision with the Ministry of Health, and any citizen dissatisfied may file a complaint. This law is applicable only to legal citizens of Israel and residents of Palestine with a legal permit from Israel, which are liberally issued. Therefore, the law is not relevant to recent immigrants. By enacting such a generous and holistic law, Israel fully believes in the human right to health care. By providing universal health care, longevity has increased, medical infrastructure has made significant developments, and Israel has become a world leader in provision of health care. Israel acknowledges and appreciates the numerous countries around the world that have adopted universal health care as a signal in their faith of health care as a human right, and encourages more countries to enact such legislation.
The State of Israel therefore calls upon the United Nations to encourage member-states to adopt complete health care systems for citizens. In addition, it is necessary that a standard be created to establish adequate health care for member-states that have insufficient health care systems. A review of the health care systems is in order as well to ensure proper administration of rights to global citizens.
