A comparative study covering all continents, this book explores the role of health rights in advancing greater equality through access to health care.

Introduction: marrying human rights and health care systems: contexts for a power to improve access and equity Colleen M. Flood and Aeyal Gross; Part I. National Public Health Systems (Tax Financed): 1. Litigating a right to healthcare in New Zealand Joanna Manning; 2. The right to health in Sweden Anna-Sara Lind; 3. Litigating health rights in Canada: a white knight for equity? Colleen M. Flood; 4. Promoting access and equity in health - assessing the National Health Service in England Chris Newdick; Part II. Social Health Insurance Systems: 5. Colombia's right to health litigation in a context of healthcare reform Everaldo Lamprea; 6. Health rights in Israel between solidarity and neo-liberalism Aeyal Gross; 7. Health care access in the Netherlands: the true story Andre den Exter; 8. Addressing equity in health care at the public-private intersection: the role of health rights enforcement in Hungary Maria Eva Foldes; 9. Lending a helping hand: the impact of constitutional interpretation on Taiwan's national health insurance program, health equity and distributive justice Y. Y. Chen; Part III. Mixed Private/Public Systems: 10. Health rights at the juncture between state and market: the People's Republic of China Christina S. Ho; 11. The role of rights and litigation in assuring more equitable access to health care in South Africa Lisa Forman and Jerome Amir Singh; 12. Provision of health care services and the right to health in Brazil: the long, winding and uncertain road to equality Mariana Prado; 13. A vision of an emerging right to health care in the United States: expanding health care equity through legislative reform Allison Hoffman; 14. The legal protection and enforcement of health rights in Nigeria Remigius Nwabueze; 15. Litigating the right to health in Venezuela: a non-justiciable right (?) in the context of a deficient health care system Oscar A. Cabrera and Fanny Gómez; 16. Right to health in India: addressing inequities through litigation Anand Grover, Maitreyi Misra and Lubhyathi Rangarajan; Conclusion: context for the promise and peril of the right to health Colleen M. Flood and Aeyal Gross.