Health (Right to)

On June 25th, 2015, in King v. Burwell, the Supreme Court decided a matter impacting the health care coverage of millions of Americans. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted by Congress in 2010 to increase the number of Americans covered by health insurance. Under the ACA, people can purchase health insurance through an “exchange” in each state, basically, a marketplace that allows people to compare and purchase insurance plans. Every state can create its own exchange but if the state chooses not to, the federal government then establishes such an exchange.

On 17th July, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held the Romanian government accountable for violating the human rights of Valentin Câmpeanu, a youth with severe mental disabilities and HIV positive, who died in 2004. Abandoned at birth, he lived in public institutions all his life. When he turned eighteen, he was shifted to a social care home for adults, and afterwards, to a mental hospital. Here, left in isolation, and in the cold, without necessary health care and treatment, and deprived also of food and proper clothing, he died within seven days.