Our mission is to advocate for health care as an essential component of human life and dignity which is our Christian duty grounded in our Baptismal Covenant and therefore to encourage and work to ensure that every person has the right to and reality of adequate health care.

As we love and serve Christ it is a given that we must safeguard and respect the dignity of every human being. (Refer to the Baptismal Covenant BCP pages 304 & 305.) This simple declaration of our mission is powerful in its implication and cuts to the heart of why faith communities should accept responsibility and take action about our failing health care delivery system. We think health care equality for all citizens should be a civil right in a country as affluent as ours.

Our mission goes beyond advocacy for fair and just health care delivery. Individual and community responsibility for wellness and healing will be encouraged by promoting health ministry in the Episcopal Church through congregations, assisting them to reclaim the Gospel imperative of health and wholeness.

FULFILLING THE MISSION

The Task Force will:

1. Identify and network parish, diocesan and national programs and ministries;
2. Assist in setting up needed programs and ministries;
3. Educate the diocese and its parishes on critical issues facing health care;
4. Assist the diocese, and its people and parishes, to advocate on matters critical to health care.

Objectives 1 & 2. Identify and network parish, diocesan and national programs and ministries; assist in setting up needed programs and ministries.

We are in the process of creating a network and collecting relevant information. An excellent source of information and assistance is available from the National Episcopal Health Ministries www.episcopalchurch.org/ashapm/health.html.

Bishop Rabb has called for each parish to identify at least one person who will be an associate member of this Task Force and provide liaison on the parish level. A conference will be organized to allow existing ministries to be celebrated and examined in detail. Parishes and regional councils interested in establishing health care ministries will be encouraged to attend such a conference. If the first one is successful, such a conference will become an annual event.

The most common example of such a ministry is the parish nurse concept. Other examples include organized lay visitations to the jailed, sick and home confined. Some congregations have health education, addiction recovery, and wellness programs ongoing and we can learn from them.

Objective 3. Educate the diocese and its parishes on critical issues facing health care.

The Task Force will contribute an article in each Maryland Church News and will establish a presence on the Diocese web page that will include a "Health Care Bulletin Board". Topics to be addressed could include: ideas for parish-based ministries and what other parishes are doing successfully, violence and drug abuse as health care issues, personnel needs, speaker availability, conferences on health care and the deliberations of the Task Force.

Hospital consolidation and end of life decision making are two examples of critical issues in health care. Consolidation of hospitals tends to be community specific but the Bishops have been asked on more than one occasion if the Diocese has a policy on this issue as it sometimes results in the loss of hospital services to needy communities.

End of life issues merits a Task Force sponsored Diocesan-wide program. The time for dying can be a powerful time for comfort, healing and spiritual renewal. Too often that does not happen. It is an appropriate activity of the Task Force to address this issue.

Personal responsibility for a healthy life style and its impact on health care needs will be addressed by encouraging parishes to engage in health education programs. Public health experts estimate that sixty percent of all hospitalizations are related to life style. Stewardship of one's own life has a moral dimension and lends itself to parish-based programs.

Access to affordable health care for all citizens is an over-riding priority for the Task Force. The delivery system has become unsustainable and is descending into utter chaos. The mantra that we enjoy the best health care in the world simply is not true because we have failed in its delivery. Public health parameters in the U.S. fall below most national norms. The World Health Organization (WHO) rates the effectiveness of U.S. health care 27 th among 54 industrialized countries. Our WHO ranking is first in cost and last in fairness. We must not become passive witnesses to this national disgrace.

American caregivers are disillusioned as never before. Insurance companies do not add value to the quality of health care but they do consume a significant portion of the health care dollar and interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. Per capita cost for health care is twice what other industrialized countries pay. Forty two million are uninsured and most of the rest of us are under insured because basic care is not covered. Coverage for prescription drugs, preventive health technology and long-term care are examples of the disenfranchisement most Americans suffer.

Until recently, the prevailing opinion was that all Americans have equal access to health care by virtue of free clinics and emergency room availability. Health outcome studies have refuted this assumption. Being uninsured means being twice as likely to die from a diagnosis of breast cancer; a diagnosis of colon cancer carries with it a 70% increased death rate. Delayed diagnosis equates with earlier death. The uninsured live sicker and die younger. One half of all family bankruptcies are generated by the medical expenses of the uninsured. This effects750,000 families each year!

Being under insured exacerbates the problem. Uncovered services, deductibles and co-payments are too often unaffordable and conspire to discourage access to care and contribute to the poor outcomes of our present delivery system.

The Diocese of Maryland has set a good example by enabling the clergy to have affordable access to the health care system. The Task Force will participate in advocacy to bring about the same reality for all.

Objective 4. Assist the diocese, and its people and parishes, to advocate on matters critical to health care.

The social gospel is often best expressed and experienced in partnership with the greater faith community. This diocese is already fully engaged with the greater community in matters of social justice and health care is part of that exercise. The task force will become an asset to this effort.

On a national level, The House of Bishops and the General Convention (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/gc/) has made a strong statement on health care issues. We will study the language of this resolution and seek ways to help carry out this challenge. We are proud that our own Bishop Rabb is a member of the Bishop's Coalition for Justice and Public Policy and has a leadership voice on health care issues.

Universal Health Care Coverage

We joined with the Task Force on Faith and Public Policy; the Coalition of Ministries for Justice and Peace and the Committee on Older Adult Ministries to successfully promulgate a resolution on universal health care coverage. This resolution was taken to the 75th Convention and joined with 12 other dioceses in the passage of a resolution for national church policy to advocate for affordable health care coverage for every U.S. citizen. In February, we met with John Johnson of the Episcopal Church for a briefing about how the Church is approaching this critical issue.

Click here to read Resolution 2006-1: Comprehensive and Affordable Health Care for all Citizens