Principles and Criteria for Health Care Reform

Principles and Criteria for Health Care Reform August 2, 2009

A May 20, 2009 USCCB letter from Bishop William F. Murphy sets forth the fundamental principles and criteria  that should be involved with respect to our national lawmakers and president’s  efforts to implement health care reform in the United States. Below is an extended passage that gets to the essentials:

As Congress begins the task of drafting legislation, the bishops offer the following principles and criteria for health care reform. The principles are rooted in our belief that decent health care is not a privilege, but a basic human right and a requirement to protect the life and dignity of every person. All people need and should have access to comprehensive, quality health care that they can afford, and this should not depend on their stage of life, where or whether they or their parents work, how much they earn, or where they live or where they come from.
The basic assumptions we offer are these: 1) a truly universal health policy with respect for human life and dignity; 2) access for all with a special concern for the poor; 3) pursuing the common good and preserving pluralism, including freedom of conscience and variety of options; and 4) restraining costs and applying them equitably across the spectrum of payers.

These assumptions should help in framing policy that is faithful to the following criteria:
• Respect for life. Whether it affirms and respects the sanctity and dignity of human life from conception to natural death. Whether it preserves the longstanding prohibition on federal funding for abortion.
• Priority Concern for the Poor. Whether it gives special priority to meeting the most pressing health care needs of the poor and underserved, ensuring that they receive quality health services.
• Access for All. Whether it provides ready access to quality, comprehensive and affordable health care for every person living in the United States.
• Comprehensive Benefits. Whether it provides comprehensive benefits sufficient to maintain and promote good health; to provide preventive care; to treat disease, injury and disability appropriately; and to care for persons who are chronically ill or dying.
• Pluralism. Whether it allows and encourages the involvement of the public and private sectors, including the voluntary, religious, and nonprofit sectors, in the delivery of care and services; and whether it ensures respect for religious and ethical values in the delivery of health care, for patients and for individual and institutional providers.
• Quality. Whether it promotes the development of processes and standards that will help to achieve quality and equity in health services, in the training of providers, and in the informed participation of individuals and families in decision making on health care.
• Cost Controls. Whether it creates effective measures to reduce waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary treatment; measures to control rising costs of competition that provide incentives to individuals and providers for effective and economical use of limited resources.
• Equitable Financing. Whether it assures society’s obligation to finance universal access to comprehensive health care in an equitable fashion, based on ability to pay; and whether proposed cost-sharing arrangements are designed to avoid creating barriers to effective care for the poor and vulnerable.


Browse Our Archives