Costa Rica

Health for all: a difficult target to attain

Costa Rica faces serious obstacles in extending the right to health to the whole population, and particularly to marginalized groups such as people living with HIV and AIDS. In addition to the restrictions placed on acquisition of medicines by the Free Trade Agreement with the US, the country needs to overcome conservative social resistance in order to adopt legislation promoting the rights of non-heterosexual women and men. Without devoting resources to meet these challenges, the country risks failing to meet the Millennium Development Goal targets related to health.