CHA official outlines organization's health care reform principles

Published: 2008-03-20

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Health care reform has to compete for attention from Congress along with the economic recession and the ongoing war in Iraq, said a Catholic Health Association official. "It will be a battle" to keep health care needs for all Americans on the front burner, said Jeff Tieman, director of CHA's "Covering a Nation" initiative. Tieman spoke March 13 to a group of editors of U.S. and Canadian Catholic publications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters in Washington. He said CHA's efforts to reform the health care system in the United States are defined in its newly released reform initiative, "Our Vision for U.S. Health Care." The document establishes principles for reform and proposes that a reformed system should be "available and accessible to everyone" and pay "special attention to the poor and vulnerable"; be oriented toward health and prevention "with the goal of enhancing the health status of communities"; be "sufficiently and fairly financed"; allocate resources in ways that are "transparent and consensus-driven"; put patients at the center of care, addressing "health needs at all stages of life from conception to natural death"; and deliver care safely and effectively and with the "greatest possible quality."

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