Support for a New Campaign for Universal Health Care

[摘要]

THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION,

Recalling its longstanding commitment to the establishment of publicly funded and guaranteed comprehensive, affordable health care for all;^1-3 and

Noting the six-year long hiatus in nationally organized campaigns toward that goal; and

Recognizing that the hiatus, following a major political defeat for health care reform efforts, reflected a political environment widely viewed as favorable, at most, to small, piecemeal steps toward reform; and

Concerned that the market-oriented health care environment has marginalized public health; and

Realizing that a broad constituency has been developing for a strong, new effort to secure comprehensive, affordable health care for all,⁴ as a result of factors such as the absence of any substantial decline in the numbers of uninsured people even as the economy boomed and unemployment shrank,⁵ and the increasingly evident failure of market-oriented managed care to contain health care costs,⁶ to enhance health care access, to assure health care quality,⁷ or to value the professional roles and integrity of health care professionals;^8,9 and

Appreciating that recent public opinion polling confirms the readiness of a great many Americans for a new attempt to gain universal coverage, with virtually half of all respondents in one survey saying that the federal government should provide health care for all;¹⁰ and

Welcoming the actual initiation of such a campaign by three national organizations, the Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN), the Gray Panthers, and the National Council of Churches, at a launching conference in Washington, DC, October, 22-24, 1999; and

Noting that the campaign for universal health care is viewed as a multi-year effort to realize, early in the next century, a government commitment assuring universal, affordable, comprehensive, quality, publicly accountable health care, and that the objectives of the campaign’s first year (a campaign phase dubbed “U2K” are (1) to increase the political prominence of the issue of fundamental health care reform nationwide, (2) to strengthen local health care reform coalitions and build new links among organizations concerned about the national crisis in health care, and (3) to help build a vigorous block of committed universal health care proponents in the next Congress; and

Encouraged by the recent formation of a Universal Health Care Taskforce by members of Congress,¹¹ therefore, APHA

1. Reaffirms its commitment to the national effort to enact universal, comprehensive health care legislation;
2. Urges that such legislation reflects the Association's 14 principles for a national health care program and that it cover all residents of the U.S., Puerto Rico, the Northern Marianas, and the U.S. territories, regardless of legal resident or immigration status;
3. Calls on the President and Congress to take all necessary steps to propose and enact legislation to achieve this; and
4. Pledges to maintain a high priority on activities to develop and enhance understanding of and support for legislation that embodies the Association's principles.

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References

1. APHA Policy Statement 7108: A National Program for Personal Health Services. APHA Policy Statements; 1948–present, cumulative. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association; current volume.
2. APHA Policy Statement 7601: Committee for a National Health Service. APHA Policy Statements; 1948–present, cumulative. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association; current volume.
3. APHA Policy Statement 9502: Toward a Comprehensive, Universal National Health Program, APHA Policy Statements, 1948–present, cumulative. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association; current volume.
4. Employee Benefit Research Institute. EBRI survey examines Americans’ confidence in the health care system. Preliminary findings. http://www.ebri.org/ prrel/pr493.htm September 10, 1999. Accessed September 11, 1999.
5. US Census Bureau. Health insurance coverage: 1999. Accessed November 8, 2000. http://www.census.gov/hhes/hlthin99/fig01.gif
6. International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. Health care cost statistics. 1999. http://www. ifebp.org/ichothcs. html. Accessed November 5, 1999.
7. Manian FA. Whither continuity of care? N Eng J Med. 1999:340(17).
8. Fagin CM. Nurses, patients and managed care. New York Times. March 16, 1999.
9. Jaklevic MC. Associations join pro-union ranks; doc, nurse organizations want to give their members a stronger voice, new services. Mod HealthCare. July 5, 1999, p. 6.
10. A frustrated and angry nation. Newsweek. November 8, 1999. Poll conducted for the Discovery Health Channel by the firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland.
11. Health Care Justice Now: U2K Update, No. 12 (July 2000). http:\\www.u2kcampaign.org/net/newsletter7-00.htm Accessed October 7, 2000.

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[发布日期] 2000-01-01

[学科分类] 医学（综合）