Recognising the numerous social, humanitarian and economic benefits of a healthy, happy populace, and the importance of access to effective medication in maintaining this health and happiness;
Noting, despite these efforts, the ongoing disproportionate distribution of access to effective medications between nations, and between peoples within nations, including the significant impact of poverty and income inequality on this access, and noting the lack of a globally accepted standard of medical treatment;
Seeking to reaffirm and strengthen its commitment to improving the health of all peoples, regardless of World Assembly (WA) membership status, hereby enacts the following:
The World Medications Council (henceforth the WMC) is established as a branch of the World Health Authority, with the purpose of improving access to safe, efficacious, and cost-effective medications in all nations. The WMC shall have the following duties:
To assess and record the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of all known medications, defined as any substance used to diagnose, prevent, treat, or manage the symptoms of disease, medical and/or psychological conditions (including for the purposes of disinfection, immunisation, contraception, abortion, hormone therapy, and euthanasia). In assessing a medication, the WMC must consider:
A medication’s safety, including the severity and frequency of known adverse effects, the therapeutic range, toxicity, interactions with other medications, and requirements for that medication safe storage, handling, and administration of the medication;
The impact of patient factors on a medication’s safety, including species, pregnancy, intercurrent medical and/or psychological conditions, employment, and lifestyle factors;
A medication’s efficacy for all indications for which it is used, including the magnitude of effect, whether a medication is curative or requires ongoing use, the therapeutic dose, frequency of dosing, duration of therapy, and synergistic or adverse effects when used with other medications;
A medication’s relative cost-effectiveness, including the medication price, total cost of therapy, costs associated with storage, handling and transport, staff training and safety protocols required for its use, and relative cost and efficacy compared to other available medications used for the same or similar purposes; and
Any other factors it deems relevant.
To, based on this assessment, create and maintain an Effective Medications List (henceforth the EML), containing those medications that are best suited to meet the needs of an effective health system.
To regularly assess and update the EML based upon the current scientific consensus.
To undertake activities to promote access to medications on the EML in all WA member nations (henceforth members).
To promote access to medications on the EML in non-WA member nations, with the consent and according to the laws of those nations.
All members must provide access to all medications included in the EML to all residents of their nation, unless one of the following exceptions applies. Nations are not required to provide access to a medication:
That is illegal, or for purposes that are illegal in that nation, for all of their residents;
For purposes other than the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, or management of disease, medical and/or psychological conditions for which that medication has an established clinical use; or
That they cannot provide access to for reasons outside their control. In this case, they must provide access to an available similarly effective alternative, and provide access to the unavailable medication as soon as possible.
Members must ensure that medications are priced in a way that allows all residents to afford all the medications they require while maintaining an adequate standard of living.
Members are encouraged to minimise the cost of medications to patients through all appropriate means, including subsidising common and/or effective medications, standardising prices, enforcing strong anti-trust legislation, and creating special access schemes for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.
This General Assembly resolution was written by Xanthorrhoea and Tinhampton to improve healthcare access. You can find the drafting thread on the forums here.
The United Regions Alliance recommends that you vote AGAINST the resolution
This resolution establishes the World Medications Council, which is tasked with studying medication and creating an Effective Medications List. All member states must provide affordable access EML medication to their citizens in need, and are encouraged to minimize these costs through government initiatives. While affordable medication is certainly important for a healthy society, the flawed steps taken by this resolution to accomplish that goal make it hard for the Alliance to support it. The EML is designed to include all medication "that are best suited to meet the needs of an effective health system," which is pretty much everything already in use -- a hospital would not keep useless drugs lying around if better alternatives exist. This may lead to states who do not wish to create affordable health services rendering such medication illegal and requiring the use of ineffective brands, thus diminishing the quality of health services. There is also the question of new and expensive medication; will low income countries be able to afford to burden of buying such medication from suppliers, especially considering that such nations may not have the infrastructure to produce their own affordable at-home equivalents? Lastly, we must consider the diverse nature of those who inhabit the greater multiverse. Horse dewormer might be great medication for horse-people and make it onto the EML, but it makes no sense for human hospitals to sell it at reduced prices (despite what some may claim).
The following comments were given during discussion on the URA Discord server:
Latest Forum Threads