Affirming Health as a Global Human Right and Opposing the Financialization of Healthcare

WHEREAS, healthcare delivery around the world is increasingly controlled by profit-driven financial actors focused on maximizing profits for the few, and not high-quality care for all; and

WHEREAS, privatization, deregulation, and the financialization of healthcare have weakened health systems and harmed patients and workers in the United States and worldwide; and

WHEREAS, communities have suffered from hospital closures because of profit-motivated healthcare systems like Steward Health Care and private equity firms like Apollo Global Management; and 

WHEREAS, private equity firms control almost 500 hospitals across the U.S.; and 

WHEREAS, consolidation and financialization in healthcare have harmed patients through poorer outcomes and higher costs; and 

WHEREAS, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that public health must be a global endeavor. and the World Health Organization has declared the right to health is indivisible from other human rights; and

WHEREAS, the Trump administration has overseen a dramatic reduction of the nation’s federal international public health footprint through dismantling the U.S Agency for International Development and ending participation in the World Health Organization; and

WHEREAS, the Trump administration seeks to harvest international heath data in a manner that will place wealth over health by linking international disease prevention aid to the supply of biological information that can be used for pharmaceutical profits, without guarantees that the aid accepting nations receive rights to the products or profits; and 

WHEREAS, AFT healthcare affiliates are leading fights to limit the role of private equity and profit-driven actors in healthcare delivery, joining the fight of union nurses and health professionals worldwide to protect patients over profits:

RESOLVED, that the AFT recognizes health as a human right, reflected in the World Health Organization’s human-rights-based approach to health services and health system policies; and 

RESOLVED, that the AFT reaffirms our commitment to global solidarity by working with Public Services International and other international labor allies to fight the corporate degradation of care; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will advocate for the U.S. to re-enter the World Health Organization; and 

RESOLVED, that the AFT will further our engagement with international bodies, including the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization  to promote public health and workers’ rights; and 

RESOLVED, that the AFT will support legislative and regulatory measures that protect essential health services, including rural and community hospitals, against profit-driven closures; and 

RESOLVED, that the AFT will actively oppose the financialization of healthcare, including the expansion of for-profit and private equity ownership of hospitals, health systems and essential health services; and 

RESOLVED, that the AFT will continue to support transparency, affordability, and patient choice by fighting excessive consolidation and vertical integration that leads to lower-quality services at higher prices; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT recommits to supporting Medicare for All which guarantees healthcare as a human right through a single-payer system.

Adopted July 19, 2026