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Michigan Division Adoption Date: April 20, 2002
To: The UNA-USA National Convention From: The Michigan Division UNA-USA Sponsors:
Topic: Global Health Care
The UNA-USA,
Alarmed at the growing global need for adequate health care, especially due to widespread malnutrition, new and virulent diseases, and inadequate facilities to cope with new challenges,
Grateful of prior UNA-USA programs promoting health care, including its partnership with Global Interdependence Initiative (GII), a ten-year, collaborative effort to develop public and political support in the United States for international engagement that better reflects the realities and implications of global interdependence,
Supporting the numerous UN resolutions promoting more equitable care for all persons,
Thankful to former AMA President Dr. Randolph D. Smoak, Jr. for his campaign for global health care as a means to securing national health care,
Encouraged by the G8’s placement of health care at the center of its growing agenda,
Saddened that the most urgent need for adequate health care is for children, those most vulnerable to infection and disease,
Noting that developing nations are often overburdened with foreign debt and debt interest, complicating their efforts to provide social services to their people,
Further recognizing that multinational corporations which develop vital drugs too often must protect their research and development costs through international patents, thus effectively discriminating against countries unable to afford needed care,
Troubled that IMF, IBRD, and other international financial organizations too often create restrictions which limit the flexibility of developing nations to respond to health care crises,
Disturbed by the loss of local expertise from developing to developed nations which reduces a struggling nation’s critical health care resources,
Alarmed that US foreign aid for health care remains despairingly low, especially in response to the April 2002 Monterrey Conference calling upon nations to achieve a foreign aid goal of 0.7% GNP,
Concerned that threats to global health are threats to both international and US national security,
Supporting efforts by the IMF and NGOs in aiding global health,
1. Encourages local chapters to coordinate with local NGOs, hospitals, and schools in the promotion of health awareness and care programs,
2. Recommends calling for priority US spending for international support programs for health care needs,
3. Urges the BCUN to utilize its contacts and resources to encourage US and foreign corporations to foster the production and inexpensive distribution of generic drugs, including but not limited to the loosening of patent restrictions, non-profit distribution through UN-related organizations, support for the development and maintenance of health care delivery systems, and special programs,
4. Recommends the pursuit of debt forgiveness in developing nations as a means of financing the rapid and efficient distribution of needed medicines,
5. Promotes a focus on health care for children as an investment in our future, especially programs of micronutrients, and Vitamin A and iodine supplements,
6. Considers making global health care a Common Core item for its advocacy agenda each year.
7. Encourages the active international participation of all interested actors in meeting global heath demands, including non-state participants.
8. Advocates for US policy to promote partnerships between industrial and developing nations which would prevent the loss of needed health care expertise from developing nations.
9. Further calls upon the IMF and other international financial organizations to become more responsive to the changing health needs of developing nations when designing conditions for aid.
10. Also advocates the pairing of health care with human rights concerns in meeting equity in resources.
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