Policy Statement on Health Care
Diocesan Press Service. February 24, 1972 [72024]
Health and holy are words akin to whole, sound, hale and well. Their close relationship in Christian history stems from the life and work of Jesus Christ "who went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and infirmity among the people."
The Problem
The fact that we have reached a crisis in our health care system does not need further research or study to be substantiated. President Nixon, in July of 1969, said, "we face a massive crisis in this area (of health care) and unless action is taken, both administratively and legislatively, to meet that crisis within the next two or three years, we will have a breakdown in our medical care system which could have consequences affecting millions of people throughout this country.
Fortune, in January 1970, described the crisis: "American medicine, the pride of the nation for many years, stands now on the brink of chaos."
Failure to develop a comprehensive national health policy has had the effect of creating a large number of individual programs, most of which are not adequately related to each other. Increasing numbers of citizens are now the victims of
- severe shortages of professional personnel
- lack of adequate medical facilities
- spiraling costs for services
We appear not to have reached a decision about what adequate health care is necessary.
The National Urban Coalition, supported by data from the Social Security Administration, states that present medical costs have placed adequate medical care beyond the grasp of at least 45 million persons below or near the Census Bureau's poverty line.
Standards
Standards for developing a new system of a health care should include the following:
A. Health Care
1) The formulation of a national health policy must rest on the well-known philosophy of the World Health Organization: "Enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief or economic and social conditions." Quality health care is possible -- it must be universal.
2) Quality care includes accessibility. Continued access to basic medical care must provide for: daily access to routine health guidance; immediate access to emergency services; periodic access to diagnostic and screening procedures. Equal access to needed health service must be assured to all, without regard to personal or family income; place of residence or length of residency; on citizenship or ability to pay.
3) Care to be comprehensive must include provisions which will:
a. Build health -- such as physical fitness, nutrition, etc.;
b. Prevent illness and disability;
c. Provide for early diagnosis and treatment -- regular physical examinations, education of consumers, etc.;
d. Provide extended care facilities -- out-patient treatment, nursing care for chronically ill and home health care;
e. Provide mental health services;
f. Provide dental care;
g. Provide for adequate research to improve methods of prevention and treatment;
h. Provide for an ongoing program of training and education of health care personnel, professionals and para-professionals, with special emphasis on recruiting and training of minority groups to assure that needed services are identified and made available.;
I. Provide for prompt and efficient administration and financial procedures.
B. The Financing of Health Services
Current annual expenditures of nearly $70 billion from public and private health sources have not provided services which meet the above standards. It is imperative that what is expended be used to provide the most effective and efficient health system. In fact, many features in the above standards in the area of prevention, if developed, would ten to reduce costs of health services.
Methods of financing must assure equal access to quality health services to the poor as well as any other group in society. The method of financing must encourage persons to seek health care prior to the development of a crisis. Deductibles, co-insurances and other similar features must be designed in such a way that comprehensive care is available to all.
Providers of health care on all levels should be assured reasonable payment for costs including compensation for all workers in health care programs. Procedures for controlling quality and cost of health care required to protect the public interest must be an integral part of an effective health care system.
C. Consumer Participation
A health care system must be responsive to regional and local needs and variations, and to the needs and cultural patterns of individual consumers. Methods of planning and administering services cannot be responsible unless they involve consumers (non-providers of health services) as full participants in decision making. Health professionals should be fully responsible for decisions affecting diagnosis and treatment of their patients, while the public should be become the ultimate determinant of the health care system, and how services are delivered, paid for and organized. Consumer representatives must be responsible to organizations concerned with public interests in health care so as to ensure sufficient flexibility within a national system to allow maximum opportunity for local needs to be met.