1

Justice in the Coronavirus response

The Challenge of COVID needs a radical approach

The world is facing an unprecedented health crisis. COVID-19 is one of the biggest challenges many health systems and economies have faced. As global leaders grapple with their pandemic response, it is the poorest and most marginalised who are facing the worst impacts of the virus worldwide. Existing inequalities are exacerbated, and many people face falling further into poverty.

But there is an opportunity today – both to fight for justice in the COVID response right now – and to ensure that together, we build a better future. And there is hope that global power imbalances might yet be addressed. Faced with the coronavirus pandemic, governments around the world are taking measures we have always been told are unimaginable. For example in Ghana, the government have doubled healthcare workers pay across the country. Now we need governments like ours to take more responsibility for the health and wellbeing of people around the world.

What are we doing?

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic demands both urgent and long-term action to change the way our world is structured. Health Poverty Action works to address unequal power imbalances and distributions of wealth around the world to tackle the root causes of poor health.

Healthcare as a right, not a commodity

A lack of funding and other issues has left many countries with chronically weak public healthcare. At the same time, better quality care is often available through private profit-making hospitals and clinics – but only for people who can afford to pay expensive fees or insurance costs. As people face the pandemic, access to quality treatment and care will, all too frequently, be determined by whether they’re able to pay. This simply isn’t right.

Hospital, Somaliland, Berbera

For example, we’ve already seen private for-profit hospitals refusing to treat patients with COVID-19, private insurance providers not guaranteeing coverage for the virus, and high upfront charges for people seeking treatment for it. This risks leaving people without the treatment they urgently need or facing financial hardship as a result of seeking care. All while healthcare providers and insurers are allowed to choose how well they protect their patients in this unprecedented health crisis.

Now is the time to build a renewed movement for free, public healthcare for all. Join our mailing list to hear more about our plans!

Join our mailing list

Working with our allies

At Health Poverty Action, we are standing shoulder to shoulder with allies fighting for a just response to the COVID pandemic. We are:

  • Supporting Global Justice Now’s campaign to demand that any COVID-19 vaccine is made affordable and available to all, including the most at-risk people globally.

Join Us & demand a vaccine for all

  • Backing the call for a ‘Robin Hood tax’ – which argues for a small increase in tax on the banking sector – to fund vital public services in the UK and worldwide. 50% of a Robin Hood Tax should go to fight poverty and climate change in the rest of the world.

Join us & call for a Robin Hood Tax

  • Joining Jubilee Debt Campaign in calling for the UK government to help secure a cancellation of crippling debt repayments for countries already struggling to spend enough on healthcare. Countries in the Global South are due to spend $40 billion on debt payments in 2020 alone

Join us & call to cancel the debt