Building a fairer and healthier world for everyone.
That is the theme of this year’s World Health Day. The World Health Organization (WHO) has marked April 7 for the last fifty years as World Health Day. The celebration aims to create awareness of a priority area of concern for the WHO.
Building a fairer, healthier world for everyone is especially relevant this year as the COVID-19 pandemic has undercut recent health gains, pushed more people into poverty and food insecurity, and amplified gender, social and health inequities. The campaign highlights WHO’s belief that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.”
This resonates strongly for the HSAA.
While this is an international day, the priority area of concern exists here in Alberta. Health inequalities are being created by the current government. Public dollars are being handed to private companies under the debunked assertion “it’s more efficient.” The result is higher costs and longer waits for care – unless you can afford to buy your way to the front of the line which creates inequality.
This World Health Day, we join WHO in calling for action to eliminate health inequities and to bring people together to build a fairer, healthier world. We will do this by continuing our fight to protect and expand public health care in Alberta. This pandemic has shown our best line of defence against this pandemic, and the next one, is a strong public health system.
You can show your support for a strong public health system on World Health Day by joining HSAA’s “I ♥ Public Health Care” campaign. Go to our campaign page and see all the different ways you can get involved, whether it is ordering a lawn sign or engaging directly with Alberta’s elected decision makers.
We join the WHO in calling on our leaders to ensure Albertans have living and working conditions that are conducive to good health. We call on all elected officials to protect public health care. Every dollar spent on health care should go toward better care for people – not bigger profits for private corporations.
