Around 140 countries recognize health as a human right in their constitutions , according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Council on the Economics of Health for All. However, nearly 4.500 billion people (more than half the world's population) were not fully covered by essential health services in 2021, demonstrating a lack of legislation and enforcement to guarantee access to healthcare for their populations.

To address this challenge, the WHO proposes commemorating World Health Day 2024 under the theme "My Health, My Right ." This year's theme was chosen to defend the right of everyone, everywhere, to access quality health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and to be free from discrimination.

The right to the highest attainable standard of health is fundamental and achievable when there is no discrimination based on race, gender, religion, political affiliation, or economic or social status, thus ensuring maximum efficiency and effectiveness in the care provided. The right to health, along with other rights, is inextricably linked to equity , and in turn, reflects and helps to strengthen social solidarity.

Around the world, the right to health for millions of people is increasingly threatened . Disease and disasters are major causes of death and disability. Conflicts devastate lives and cause death, suffering, hunger, and psychological distress.

The International Conference held by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Alma Ata in 1978 recognized Primary Health Care (PHC) as one of the fundamental components of an effective health system, health as a fundamental human right, and the achievement of the highest possible level of health as a supremely important social goal throughout the world, the realization of which requires the intervention of many other social and economic sectors, in addition to the health sector.

Progress has fallen short of expectations in the 46 years since Alma-Ata, as half the world's population still lacks access to quality basic health services, including care for communicable and non-communicable diseases, maternal and child health, and mental health. Deaths continue to occur from diseases that could be prevented with adequate health coverage and access. Furthermore, many health interventions remain focused on biomedical models and the treatment of specific diseases, prioritizing curative services over health promotion and prevention, rather than strengthening health systems with a holistic approach.

Experiences in developed and developing countries demonstrate that primary health care (PHC) can be interpreted and adapted to a wide variety of political, social, cultural, and economic contexts . Therefore, it is necessary to address the issue of the right to health from the perspective of the social determinants of health . This implies recognizing the complex situations that shape the health-disease-care process, paying particular attention to those aspects that can strengthen it.

Understanding health as a collective right, which goes beyond the absence of disease, requires that those of us who work in the field of primary care be present in the territory, with the community, framing its actions, allowing us to understand the socio-health reality of which we are all a part , fostering encounters, the development of critical thinking, respect for local knowledge, the building of solidarity ties and the protagonism of people in the reconstruction of an active State, present and guarantor of the rights of all.

A primary health care (PHC) approach is essential for addressing the social determinants of health and achieving the best possible quality of healthcare for every individual and their family. This strategy proposes a comprehensive response to health problems. It means doing everything possible to alleviate people's daily suffering, but we must recognize health as a fundamental human capability, a prerequisite that allows people to pursue their life goals, and an indispensable element in building a healthy society.

(*) Professor in the Medicine program at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Medical Director of the “Las Lilas” Health Post. Deputy Director of the General and Family Medicine Specialization Program at the Universidad Austral.