What Congress Can Do Now For Global Health

Last week, another health care bill was introduced into the U.S. Congress. It's a bit shorter than the landmark health legislation recently passed, and it certainly didn't claim so many headlines. But it's an incredibly important one for global health.

The legislation is called the Global HEALTH Act. Introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), it's a bill that Physicians for Human Rights has called "transformative" — one with significant potential to strengthen the way the U.S. engages in global health.

Like any bill, there's lots to unwrap. So what's inside? There are at least two major features, among many others, that caught my attention.

First, the bill asks the President to establish a comprehensive 5-year "global health strategy" guided by the health Millennium Development Goals, which coordinate all global health programs across the U.S. government. A "Strategy Coordinator" for global health would drive this effort and also serve as a point of reference for Congress. There are pages and pages of very specific, ambitious ideas and goals to guide this strategy — from encouraging the elimination of user fees to addressing the social determinants of health, such as water, sanitation, jobs, and housing. If the U.S. adopted these ideas in their programs, it'd be a huge step forward for global health.

The bill's other major plan is the Global Health Worker Initiative, which targets a phenomenon we've written about here before: the shocking lack of health workers in many countries. The initiative supports the creation of at least 2.3 health workers (doctors, nurses and midwives) per 1,000 residents in countries now facing major shortages. To reach the ideal minimum health worker ratio per country (a figure based on World Health Organization research), the bill proposes $2 billion dollars over five years to support everything from new training institutes and direct salary pay to financial incentives like loan repayment for the expansion and retention of health workers. Part of the plan also includes a push to reform laws to help end recruitment by the U.S. of health workers away from countries with shortages. Given that countries like Malawi, for example, which has 260 doctors for a population of 13 million, this bill provides much-needed help.

How would the Global HEALTH Act affect the 6-year, $63 billion Global Health Initiative that Obama's already been proposed and begun implementing? Think of the Obama GHI as the roadmap for U.S. global health policy, from a 30,000-foot view. By contrast, the Global HEALTH Act will give specific principles and benchmarks to ensure that such proposed U.S. investments are sustainable and accountable over the long run.

The bill has some incredibly promising ideas. From health worker shortages to uncoordinated delivery of aid, it's tackling the systemic issues that have plagued global health for decades. It's a bill worthy of broad-based support, and the upcoming World Health Day (April 7th) offers a great moment to urge your representative to co-sponsor this exciting and crucial piece of legislation.

But why wait? Check out the bill here, and please join other Change.org members in writing your representatives now, using the petition above.

Photo Credit: kevindooley