Health Care for All

Statement of the Board of Directors, Interfaith Worker Justice
September 15, 2009

Our nation's health care system is in crisis. Over 46 million Americans, mostly workers and their families, have no insurance and little access to care. Many employers do not provide insurance, provide inadequate coverage, or require payments that workers cannot afford. An illness or injury can spell financial ruin even for members of the middle class.

As people of faith, we believe that every person has been created to live with dignity and wholeness. In today's world, this requires access to health care. Providing universal access to health care is a moral and spiritual imperative.

Interfaith Worker Justice calls for systemic change that is guided by the following principles based on our religious values. We support universal access to quality health care that:

• is comprehensive and affordable,
• allows choice of providers,
• is independent of work status,
• eliminates health outcome disparities,
• includes effective cost containment, and
• simplifies and streamlines administration.

IWJ calls on Congress and the American people to speedily reform the health care system in accordance with these principles and to allow all our neighbors to live lives of dignity and wholeness.

"Health care is not only a basic human need but also a basic human right and [we believe] that it is a moral imperative to transform health care so that it is: inclusive, accessible, affordable and accountable."
United Church of Christ General Synod

"Whoever saves the life of another one, surely he saves the lives of all humanity"
Holy Qur'an - Sura Al Ma'aidah: Ayah 32

"We are all created b'tzelem elohim-in the image of God-and this makes each human life as precious as the next. By ‘pricing out' a portion of this country's population from health care coverage, we mock the image of God and destroy the vessels of God's work."
Rabbi Alexander Schindler, Past President, Union of Hebrew Congregations

"Every person has the right to health care. This right flows from the sanctity of human life and the dignity of all persons, who are made in the image of God."
Resolution on Health Care Reform, U.S. Catholic Bishops

"Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.