You are not the only one encouraging your Congressperson to co-sponsor the Global HEALTH Act. Representative Barbara Lee sent a letter to all her Congressional colleagues last week, urging them to support the bill. Check out her letter below. It outlines the four ways that the Global HEALTH Act will assist with the development and implementation of Obama’s landmark Global Health Initiative. The Act will provide strategy, consistency and a greater emphasis on health workforce and health systems — all key to making foreign health policy that supports the right to health.
Her letter includes a list of organizations from across the globe that support the Global HEALTH Act — including PHR. Organizations are continually being added to this list, and we encourage you all to contact your Congressperson and urge them to co-sponsor this bill, which will revolutionize foreign health aid and save lives.
Yesterday, Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced the Global HEALTH Act (House Resolution 4933) in Congress. We are thrilled at this opportunity to transform America’s global health policy and provide billions more in aid to develop health systems in poor countries.
Take 10 minutes to read the bill (pdf)—there is a lot to learn:
What the HEALTH in Global HEALTH Act really stands for (This one I’ll give you: Global Health Expansion, Access to Labor, Transparency, and Harmonization Act of 2010).
The overall goal of the bill (This one you get too—the rest you have to look up: To establish a strategy to coordinate all health-related United States foreign assistance, to assist developing countries in improving delivery of health services, and to establish an initiative to assist developing countries in strengthening their indigenous health workforces).
The GHA’s vision for a new United States Global Health Strategy (page 2).
Which Millennium Development Goals the new Strategy would target (page 4).
The ration of health workers to population the Strategy will aim for (page 12).
How the Global Health Strategy will really work—what it will support, what it can do (page 8).
How the US Global Health Strategy will support National Health Strategies in developing countries (page 30).
How the new Global Health Workforce Initiative fits in to the Global Health Strategy (page 39).
How many countries the GHWI will target (page 40).
The criteria for selecting these countries (page 40).
What the GHWI will do to support health workers in developing countries (page 43).
How much money the Global HEALTH Act will provide for all these critical global health capacity building programs (this one I have to tell you—$2 Billion over 5 years. Amazing. See the yearly breakdown on pages 64-65).
Read the bill, and get ready to take action. On April 7th, World Health Day, we’ll ask you to email your Congressperson and urge them to co-sponsor the Global HEALTH Act. And spread the word—this is a transformative bill, and you can make a difference.
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.
