“Whilst we see World Health Organization’s work on Primary Health Care as a step forward, there are still issues to address.
The 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata put forward a vision of Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC), rooted in “health as a human right” and the “spirit of social justice.” Alma-ata proposed to achieve Health for all by 2000 through tackling Social Determinants of Health and noted that achievement was critically dependent on the creation of a New International Economic Order .
Declaration of Astana, which was meant to renew the commitment to Health for all, speaks of Universal Health Coverage rather than Comprehensive Primary Health Care. Our analysis is that it “Universal Health Coverage prescribes a clear split between health financing and health provision, allowing for the entry of privatisation. In short, the Universal Health Coverage model is built on, and lends itself to, standard neoliberal policies, steering policy-makers away from universal health options based on public systems”.
The ‘multi-stakeholder’ paradigm in the discourse on Universal Health Coverage tends to neglect or disguise adverse effects of commodification of health. We call on Member states to recall the original intention of Alma-Ata, and to insist on a human rights-based approach that promotes a comprehensive approach to health care and insists on the redistribution of power and wealth, within and between countries.”
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