Guide to Health Care Background Reading

California Council of Churches

California Church IMPACT

Guide to Health Care: Background Reading

for

Moral Values that Can Change the World:

Reflections on Faith and the Common Good

Is There No Balm in Gilead?

Health Care for ALL God’s Children

Statements and Guides from Faith Groups

Combined resource guide: American Baptist, Church of the Brethren, Disciples of Christ (Christian Church), Congress of National Black churches, Episcopal church, Evangelical Covenant Church, Free Methodist Church, Mennonite Church, Presbyterian (USA), Progressive national Baptist Convention, Seventh-Day Adventist Church in North America, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, African Methodist Episcopal, Church of the Nazarene, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, General Baptist State Convention of NC, Wesleyan

www.hmassoc.org

African Methodist Episcopal Churches – Health Plan (Seventh District)

http://health-e-ame.com/chamec.php

American Baptist

www.faithfulreform.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=68

California Council of Churches

Being the Good Samaritan: Health Access for All Californians

California Council of Churches congregational study guide, 2005

Available from CCC at 4044 Pasadena Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95821

916.488.7300

PDF version for download: http://www.calchurches.org/publication_pdfs/HealthAccessGuide.pdf

Communities of Christ Health Ministries Association

http://www.hmacofchrist.org/

Disciples of Christ – 2007 resolution on children’s health care

http://www.disciples.org/ga/resolutions/0724/

ELCA

“Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor”

Evangelical Lutheran Church of America study guide

See online at:

http://www.elca.org/socialstatements/health/

Episcopal Church, USA Statement on Health Care

(1991)

http://www.uhcan.org/faith/faith_statements/episcopal%20church.htm

(2003)

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/5232_11313_ENG_Print.html

Presbyterian Church USA Statement on Health Care

“Life Abundant-Values, Choices and Health Care: The Responsibility and Role of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

http://www.pcusa.org/nationalhealth/policies/policy_affirmation.htm

National health ministries

http://www.pcusa.org/nationalhealth/advocacy/index.htm

United Church of Christ

Health Ministry

http://www.chhsm.org/members/covenant-manual/section2.html

United Methodist Church – Faith Statement on Health Care

(2001)

http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/health/community-health/

and

www.umc-gbcs.org/site/pp.asp?c=fsJNK0PKJrH&b=861341

General Literature on American Health Care

Sick: The Untold Story of America’s Health Care Crisis---and the People Who Pay the Price

by Jonathan Cohn

The Great Risk Shift: The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health Care, and Retirement--And How You Can Fight Back

by Jacob S. Hacker

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

By Harriet A. Washington

The Truth About Health Care: Why Reform Is Not Working in America (Critical Issues in Health and Medicine)

by David Mechanic

Health Care Politics: Ideological and Interest Group Barriers to Reform

by Robert Alford

A Second Opinion: Rescuing America’s Health Care

by Dr. Arnold Relman

Health Care Advocacy Groups

The Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Health Care: This Massachusetts-based organization is working for quality health care for all. It has a set of ten clearly defined principles of health care delivery and practice that provide the foundation for its advocacy work. The MA plan is the first ‘universal’ plan in the nation, with positive as well as negative aspects. Its outcomes affect CA planning.

California Health Consensus: An offshoot of The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, this site is full of information about health care problems in California. There are several stories about problems individuals have experienced, many newspaper articles, and information on legislation.

California Nurses Association, Nurses Union: The California Nurses Association clearly keeps a close eye on major hospital chains. Its homepage has links to information and press stories about the hospital chains it watches. The website also contains links and information regarding patient care issues and nursing issues.

California Pan-Ethnic Health Network: Alliance of groups serving people of color working for improved access and provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate care.

Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc.: The Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc. is a national non-partisan education and advocacy organization that identifies and promotes policy and advocacy solutions to ensure that elders and people with disabilities have access to Medicare and quality health care

Citizens Council on Health Care: This Minnesota-based organization works toward physician/patient autonomy and a free market model for health care. The website has a great deal of information about the activities of the organization and the specific health care issues they address.

Coalition for Consumer Justice-SPRI: The Coalition for Consumer Justice Education Project is one of Rhode Island’s oldest grassroots organizations that empowers consumers in the areas of healthcare, utilities, and environmental justice.

CodeBlueNow!: A national grassroots education and advocacy group committed to positive change in the U.S. health care system, CodeBlueNow! operates by engaging the American public in a systematic dialogue to define values and propose solutions for improved health care delivery and by educating leaders capable of affecting positive change in our nation’s health care system.

Families USA: This national organization provides a wide range of health education and advocacy information looking at achieving universal coverage and outstanding medical care as a basic justice issues for all Americans.

Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights: This organization puts professional and grassroots activists to work protecting the interests of consumers. Their health care branch, Consumers for Quality Care, watches out for patients rights and works to preserve quality medical care.

Health Access: California-based health care education and advocacy for issues relating to all aspects of universal health care, access (including cultural and linguistic), affordability, patient rights.

Health Administration Responsibility Project: HARP focuses on corporate medicine in the health care system, including the legal support for it and the implications it has for patient care. The site is full of legal resources. On the homepage you can sign up for an active and fascinating mailing list.

Health Care for All/OneCareNow: A primary goal of Health Care for All is to inform Californians of the problems with our health care system and how a Single Payer system would solve most of the problems. HCA’s activist campaign for single=payer is OneCareNow.

Health Care for Massachusetts Campaign: The Campaign is working toward an amendment to the Massachusetts state constitution that would require Massachusetts lawmakers to create laws that ensure every Massachusetts citizen has access to affordable health care.

Health Consumer Alliance: This California organization works to ensure that low income people have access to health care and are able to utilize that access effectively.

Hospice Patients Alliance: The Hospice Patients Alliance works to protect the rights of hospice patients and their families by providing information about those rights, by working to resolve conflicts involving hospice patients, and by advocating quality hospice care throughout the US. The web site includes a bookstore and an abundance of information about hospice care.

Kaiser Family Foundation: Provides regular updates on a wide variety of health care issues, crises, and concerns. It is considered one of the ‘go to’ organizations for research, policy updates, and other health care information. Kaiser also hosts conferences and panels that may be accessed via webcasts.

Latino Coalition for a Healthy California: Focuses on a wide range of health, environmental issues, toxic exposure, farmworker health, and other matters than disproportionately affect the Latino/Hispanic communities in California.

Nursing Home News: “The Consumer Justice Group is a public interest advocacy organization. Through Nursing Home News , we provide tools and suggestions for people who are having trouble with their nursing care situations. On a case by case basis we represent people who are abused or neglected in nursing homes throughout the country.”

Paralyzed Veterans of America: This group engages in advocacy and research on behalf of paralyzed veterans.

Physicians for a National Health Program: Website for an organization of health care professionals dedicated to national health insurance. The site includes articles and other publications regarding national health insurance, as well as a link to and a way to endorse the “Proposal of the Physicians’ Working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance” sponsored by this group and published in the August 13, 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Project EINO: Educates the public, encouraging state movement towards an equitable health care system guaranteeing universal access to care. Project EINO recommends focus on the ‘Right to Health Care’, as the best strategy to empower communities most at-risk in the current system. If you think you might be interested in some additional discussion and possible work with other people in your state on the issue of extending health coverage to all citizens.

Right to Health Care: Part of Project EINO, this site includes many legal and historical documents pertaining to the right to health care in the United States. Readers will find forums for discussing the right to health care as well as ways to work for the right to health care.

A Universal Healthcare Plan: This website puts forth a very straightforward plan for single payer health care in the United States. It has a way to offer comments on the plan, as well as a discussion group one may join.

Consumer Organizations

Consumers Union Health Care Issues: Consumers Union publishes Consumer Reports. This site, part of the Consumers Union website, focuses on specific health care issues. It includes press releases, articles, and other written material regarding such issues as Medicare, conversion of hospitals from a nonprofit to a for-profit model, affordability and prescription drugs.

Families USA: This consumer oriented group works for affordable, quality health care. It prepares public policy reports, keeps watch over government health-related activity and conducts public information campaigns. The website, which cannot be adequately appreciated in just one visit, has information about health care issues and resources for health care activism.

HealthCareCoach.com: Health information for consumers as they make decisions about insurance coverage, choosing physicians, accessing medical care, and researching medical conditions and medical treatment options.

healthinsuranceinfo.net: This site, written and maintained by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, has detailed, comprehensive. and easily understood consumers guides on getting and keeping insurance in each state. It also has a newsletter available by subscription, and offers consumer alerts regarding specific health insurance plans.

Public Citizen: Health Research Group: The health-related section of Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen organization. This site has information on questionable physicians, on medications, on occupational health and so on. There are mailing lists and ways to sign up to be involved in grassroots activities.

This document can be found at http://www.calchurches.org/healthcare/healthcarebackgroundreading.htm

You can download a Microsoft Word document at http://www.calchurches.org/healthcare/healthcarebackgroundreading.doc