wfn.org | NCC Seeks to Put Health Care Back on National Political Agenda

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National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Office of News Services
Email: news@ncccusa.org
Web: www.ncccusa.org
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
	50th Anniversary Newsroom - Nov. 8-12, 1999 call 216-696-8490

NCC SEEKS TO PUT HEALTH CARE BACK ON THE AGENDA

Nov. 11, 1999, CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The National Council of Churches (NCC) 
and other faith groups were applauded Thursday for their efforts to put 
universal health care back on the national political agenda.
Speaking at a forum of the National Faith Communities Health Care Gathering 
here, Dr. Caswell A. Evans, Jr., Deputy U.S. Surgeon General, decried what 
he called a "disease-care and illness-treatment system" that is 
"profit-centered and investor-driven" and does not actually deliver health 
care.
He praised the recent efforts by the NCC and other faith groups to remedy a 
situation in which, amid economic prosperity for many, there are huge 
pockets of inequity in health care. For example, some 44 million Americans 
- including 16 million children -- are without any type of health insurance 
at all, Dr. Evans said. "This needs to be fixed and you can have an impact 
on that," he said.
The NCC and its member denominations are key players in a new effort, the 
"Universal Health Care 2000 Campaign," or "U2K," that wants to make 
universal health care a prominent issue in the year 2000 elections. The 
Nov. 11forum served as a way to launch a faith-based community organizing 
campaign for universal health care, and was part of the two-day National 
Faith Communities Health Care Gathering.
"For universal health care, we (in the faith community) can't sit and wait 
any longer," said Barbara Baylor, who heads the Health and Welfare Program 
of the United Church of Christ. "The debate needs to go from can we have 
universal health care to how can we have universal health care," said Pat 
Conover of the UCC Washington office.
Robb Burlage, Director of the Interfaith Health Care Initiative of the 
NCC's National Ministries Unit, and Barbara George, NCC Ecumenical Networks 
Director, said the issue of health care intersects with every other social 
issue facing the United States today.
"This is the pinnacle issue," Ms. George said. She noted that when Oregon 
introduced a version of universal health care in the early 1990s, the 
state's welfare rates declined.
"The churches lost hope with this issue in the early 1990s," she noted, 
when the U.S. Congress defeated an effort by the Clinton administration to 
widen health coverage in the United States. But the issue has refused to go 
away, and now the U.S. faith community is poised to tackle the issue anew 
and with fresh vigor. "We're back again," said Barbara Baylor.
Thursday's forum featured testimonies of denominational representatives, 
church congregations and community groups that have worked in coalitions to 
improve conditions of health care at the local level.
In one such program, the Sierra Health Foundation, a Sacramento-based 
group, has worked in coalition with local groups to improve health 
conditions for children, with a particular interest in improving dental 
health, a little-known but growing health concern throughout the United States.

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