New publication: The Right to Financial Accessibility of Health Care for Children; A Holistic Human Rights-Based Approach
This article investigates from a children’s rights perspective the responsibility of the state to make healthcare financial accessible for children. It is concluded that health care which is life-saving, improves development, promotes dignity, or results in inhuman treatment if denied, needs to be made financially accessible by the state; except if the implementation is beyond the maximum extent of available resources.
Innovative pharmacotherapies such as stem cell-based gene therapy for children often experience difficulty receiving financial coverage due to their high costs. However, the legal analysis shows that such decisions cannot be based solely on cost-effectiveness analyses: a state should (also) proof that financial coverage of these therapies threaten the financial sustainability of the healthcare system. It thus illustrates that children’s rights should be more included in the policy decisions about these innovative, and potentially life-saving therapies.