Acceso a cuidados de salud: discursos bioéticos del Norte y del Sur / Access to healthcare: bioethical discourses from North and South

RESUMEN Estudio comparativo adoptando la técnica de investigación bibliográfica, mediante identificación y lectura de obras de referencia de consagrados autores de la bioética, con el objetivo de analizar discursos bioéticos sobre la temática del acceso a la salud en Estados Unidos y Brasil. Identificamos que el énfasis de los discursos estadounidenses está en la adquisición de bienes y servicios de salud y en estrategias para garantizar el acceso a seguros de salud, que es vista como una mercancía. Por el contrario, los discursos brasileños se centran en defender el derecho y acceso universal a la salud, que es vista como un valor social, un derecho humano fundamental. Los autores concluyen que los discursos bioéticos sobre el acceso a la salud encarnan diferentes perspectivas ético-políticas. En este sentido, las políticas de salud pueden promover - o no - los derechos humanos, incluyendo el derecho a la salud, dependiendo de cómo son concebidas o ejecutadas.

ABSTRACT Comparative study, with a hermeneutical approach, adopting the bibliographic research technique, through identification and reading of reference works by renowned authors of bioethics, with the aim of analyzing bioethical discourses on the subject of access to healthcare in the United States and Brazil. We identify that the emphasis of American discourses is on the acquisition of health goods and services and on strategies to guarantee access to health insurance, which is seen as a commodity. On the contrary, Brazilian discourses focus on defending the right and universal access to health, which is seen as a social value, a fundamental human right. The authors conclude that bioethical discourses on access to health embody different ethical-political perspectives. In this sense, health policies may or may not promote human rights, including the right to healthcare, depending on how they are conceived or executed.

Access to health care as a human right in international policy: critical reflections and contemporary challenges

Using the United Nations (UN) and its subordinate body, the World Health Organization (WHO), as a frame of reference, this article explores access to healthcare as a human right in international intergovernmental policies. First, we look at how the theme of health is treated within the UN, focusing on the concept of global health. We then discuss the concept of global health from a human rights perspective and go on to outline the debate surrounding universal coverage versus universal access as a human right, addressing some important ethical questions. Thereafter, we discuss universal coverage versus universal access using the critical and constructivist theories of international relations as a frame of reference. Finally, it is concluded that, faced with the persistence of huge global health inequalities, the WHO began to reshape itself, leaving behind the notion of health as a human right and imposing the challenge of reducing the wide gap that separates international intergovernmental laws from reality.