<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Claudio Schuftan</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cschuftan@phmovement.org">cschuftan@phmovement.org</a>></span><br>
Date: Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:16 PM<br>Subject: Fwd: need your advice<br>To: phm-exchange <<a href="mailto:phm-exchange@phm.phmovement.org">phm-exchange@phm.phmovement.org</a>><br><br><br><div dir="ltr">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">David Legge</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:D.Legge@latrobe.edu.au" target="_blank">D.Legge@latrobe.edu.au</a>></span><div class="">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;background:white">
<b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"">Investing in health<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/search/results?fieldName=Authors&searchTerm=David+Chiriboga" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">David
Chiriboga</span></a>, <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/search/results?fieldName=Authors&searchTerm=Paulo+Buss" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">Paulo Buss</span></a>, <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/search/results?fieldName=Authors&searchTerm=Anne-Emanuelle+Birn" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">Anne-Emanuelle
Birn</span></a>, <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/search/results?fieldName=Authors&searchTerm=Juan+Garay" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">Juan Garay</span></a>, <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/search/results?fieldName=Authors&searchTerm=Carles+Muntaner" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">Carles
Muntaner</span></a>, <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/search/results?fieldName=Authors&searchTerm=Laura+Nervi" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">Laura Nervi</span></a>, on behalf of 42 signatories<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040">As public health professionals devoted to global health equity, we would like to express our deep concern
with the <i>The Lancet</i>Commission <i>Global health 2035: a world converging within a generation</i> (Dec 7, p 1898),<a name="144e837a8a351457_144e814354365463_back-bib1"></a><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60473-6/fulltext#bib1" title="" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;color:#009fc2">1</span></a> a
re-run of the 1993 World Development Report, whose policies contributed to the shrinkage of government institutions and massive privatisation and fragmentation of health-care systems, effectively decreasing coverage and accessibility.<a name="144e837a8a351457_144e814354365463_back-bib2"></a><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60473-6/fulltext#bib2" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;color:#009fc2">2</span></a>, <a name="144e837a8a351457_144e814354365463_back-bib3"></a><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60473-6/fulltext#bib3" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;color:#009fc2">3</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><u></u> <u></u></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040">The Lancet</span></i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"> Commission
on Investing in Health comprised mostly of individuals affiliated with or funded by international financial institutions, corporations, public—private partnerships, bilateral donor agencies, and their philanthropic and academic partners, mostly from high-income
countries, presents a biased perspective reminiscent of failed neoliberal prescriptions rooted in the reinvention of formulas by co-opting terms like universal health care and access. The recommendations are based on the principle of return on investment,
not on health equity, while creating a double standard: one for the rich and another for the rest of us. Any policy for the poor is by definition a poor policy.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040">The Lancet</span></i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"> Commission's
recommendations do not represent the global health community and are fundamentally flawed by neglecting the principle of the right to health. The report analyses Millennium Development Goals progress without reference to stagnant levels of health inequity:
20 million deaths each year, more than a third of all deaths, are avoidable and caused by socio-economic injustice—a number and a proportion that have not changed for the past 40 years.<a name="144e837a8a351457_144e814354365463_back-bib4"></a><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60473-6/fulltext#bib4" title="" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:8.0pt;color:#009fc2">4</span></a> Every
individual, organisation, or government working to promote heath equity and WHO's objective of enjoyment by all peoples of the best attainable level of health should be on their guard.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040">Supplementary appendix<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><a href="http://download.thelancet.com/mmcs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673614604736/mmc1.pdf?id=caaL7pi1VX8K0_woTdOtu" title=""Open file" t " target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";text-decoration:none"><img src="cid:image001.gif@01CF45E4.B7CEFF10" alt="Open file" border="0" height="31" width="31"></span></a><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><a href="http://download.thelancet.com/mmcs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140673614604736/mmc1.pdf?id=caaL7pi1VX8K0_woTdOtu" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">PDF<span> </span></span></a></span><span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:gray">(109K)</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d">References<u></u><u></u></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60473-6/fulltext#back-bib1" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">1</span></a><span> </span><span>Jamison</span><span> </span><span>DT</span><span>,</span><span> </span><span>Summers</span><span> </span><span>LH</span><span>,</span><span> </span><span>Alleyne</span><span> </span><span>G</span><span>,
et al</span><span>.</span><span> </span><span>Global health 2035: a world converging within a generation</span>.<span> </span><span><i>Lancet</i></span><span> </span><span>2013</span><span>;</span><span> </span><span><b>382</b></span><span>:</span><span>1898-1955</span><span>.</span><span> </span>
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60473-6/fulltext#back-bib2" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">2</span></a><span> </span><span>Laurell</span><span> </span><span>AC</span><span>,</span><span> </span><span>Arellano</span><span> </span><span>OL</span><span>.</span><span> </span><span>Market
commodities and poor relief: the World Bank proposal for Health</span>.<span> </span><span><i>Int J Health Serv</i></span><span> </span><span>1996</span><span>;</span><span> </span><span><b>26</b></span><span>:</span><span> </span><span>1-18</span><span>.</span><span> </span>
<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60473-6/fulltext#back-bib3" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">3</span></a><span> </span><span>Lister</span><span> </span><span>J</span>.<span> </span><span>Globalization
and health systems change. WHO Commission on Social detetminants of Health</span><span>.</span><span> </span><span>University of Ottawa,</span><span>2008</span><span>.</span><span> </span><span><a href="http://www.globalhealthequity.ca/webfm_send/14" target="_blank"><span style="color:#333333">http://www.globalhealthequity.ca/webfm_send/14</span></a>.</span><span> </span><span>(accessed
March 1, 2014).</span><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:14.85pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#404040"><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60473-6/fulltext#back-bib4" target="_blank"><span style="color:#009fc2">4</span></a><span> </span>Garay
J, Harris L, Beam M, Zompi S. Global inequity death toll: targeting global health equity and estimating the burden of inequity. 141st American Public Health Association Annual Meeting; Boston, MA, USA; Nov 2—6, 2013. Abstr 291133.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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