Right to Health Action (also known as R2H Action) is a left-leaning Boston-based advocacy organization focused on regulation of the health care industry and increasing government spending on health care, as well as environmentalist and racial-advocacy initiatives.
The group published a policy platform called the “People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan” that would “apply the lessons of COVID-19” to enact a broadly left-of-center agenda, including a “New-Deal sized” expansion of U.S. federal health and environmentalist programs and expanded foreign aid for health programs. Endorsers of the plan included labor unions like the Service Employees International Union, environmentalist organizations like Greenpeace USA, and multi-issue left-of-center advocacy organizations including the Center for Popular Democracy. 1
Background
Right to Health Action was founded in March 2020 as a political advocacy organization by left-of-center international health care activists Akshita Siddula and Jon Shaffer in Boston, Massachusetts. 2
Policy Advocacy
Right to Health Action’s official policy platform, titled “People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan,” includes four priorities, the first of which is the launching of a “New-Deal sized public health and climate jobs corps” to “fight racial health and environmental disparities,” which would after the conclusion of the COVID-19 pandemic work on broader tasks, such as ending “environmental racism” and “homelessness,” as well as promoting “rural broadband.” To accomplish these things, the organization notes the program would entail the creation of “hundreds of thousands of permanent union jobs in community-based social change organizations,” “preferentially” hiring from “communities impacted by systemic racism.” Notably, in connection with this policy priority, the organization supported the “Health Force, Resilience Force, and Jobs To Fight COVID-19 Act of 2021” sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). 3 4
R2H Action’s second policy priority is lowering the prices and increasing the accessibility of vaccines and other drugs. To that end, the organization supports policies that would reduce patent and trade secret protections for American pharmaceutical companies.. Additionally, the organization supports legislation that would regulate the price of drugs, such as the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ). 5 6
R2H Action also supports the establishment of an international fund to finance pandemic prevention programs, to which the United States would contribute at least $2 billion, and a blanket prohibition of commercial activities within the U.S. by corporations that engage in “irresponsible deforestation” and “unsafe wildlife trade.” 7
Biden Administration
Following the election of President Joe Biden in 2020, Right to Health Action urged its supporters to send a memo to Biden’s nominee to serve as U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy. The memo, citing the support of aligned organizations and individuals, offered four policy recommendations closely mirroring its policy platform, which it claimed aligned with the Biden administration’s “Build Back Better” initiative. 8
Later, after Biden took office and announced the administration’s “Biden Plan to Combat COVID-19 and Prepare for Future Global Health Threats” (later restyled as “Joe and Kamala’s Plan to Beat COVID-19”) R2H Action drafted a petition from a claimed “1,500+ health workers” reiterating the themes and recommendations of its memo to Murthy. 9
Supporting Organizations
Left-leaning organizations that have endorsed Right to Health Action’s policy platform include the NAACP, the Service Employees International Union, Greenpeace USA, United We Dream, ACT UP, Friends of the Earth Action, the Center for Popular Democracy, Oxfam, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Employment Law Project. 10
People
Akshita Siddula is the co-founder and organizing director of Right to Health Action. Previously, Siddula worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Partners in Health Engage (an advocacy initiative of Partners in Health), and the United States Agency for International Development. 11
Jon Shaffer is the co-founder of Right to Health Action. Previously, Shaffer was an executive director of GlobeMed, a senior strategist for grassroots organizing at Partners In Health, the founder of Partners in Health Engage, and the executive director of the Boston Network for International Development. 12
References
- “People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022. https://www.r2haction.org/peoples-pandemic-prevention-plan
- “About Us.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022. https://www.r2haction.org/about
- “Health Force, Resilience Force, and Jobs To Fight COVID–19 Act of 2021.” Congress.gov. January 22, 2021. Accessed January 17, 2022. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/32?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22s.32%22%5D%7D&s=2&r=1
- “People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022. https://www.r2haction.org/peoples-pandemic-prevention-plan
- “Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act.” Congress.gov. March 22, 2021. Accessed January 18, 2022. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr+3%22%5D%7D&s=2&r=1
- “People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022https://www.r2haction.org/peoples-pandemic-prevention-plan
- “People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022.
- “People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan Memo to Biden Transition Team.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022. https://www.r2haction.org/biden-transition-team
- “Health Community Recommendations to Strengthen the Biden Plan to Combat COVID-19 and Prepare for Future Global Health Threats.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022. https://www.r2haction.org/1-500-health-workers-call-on-joe-bi
- “People’s Pandemic Prevention Plan.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022.
- [1]“The Team.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022. https://www.r2haction.org/about
- “The Team.” Right to Health Action. Accessed January 17, 2022. https://www.r2haction.org/about