In December, 2003, the Los Angeles Council of Religious Leaders--senior administrators from a broad spectrum of Jewish and Christian communities-- took note of the fact that California is the epicenter of the nation’s growing crisis in health insurance coverage. About 16% of non-elderly Californians are without health insurance during some period each year. The Council created a Health Care Task Force to study this situation, and, ultimately, to speak about it from the perspective of the region’s religious conscience.
Led by Rabbi Mark Diamond and Episcopal Bishop Jon Bruno, the task force met for over a year. It surveyed public health reports. It met with hospital and health plan executives, health care providers, community advocates, health care economists, legislators, ethicists, and theologians. It engaged in a series of discussions to assess whether or not Southern California’s diverse faith communities did in fact share moral beliefs about the design of their nation’s and state’s health coverage system.
Now the task force is in the final stages of preparing its report.
John Orr, Senior Research Associate at CRCC, has been a member of the task force. "The report's conclusions will have a great deal of integrity," he says. "The task force has done its homework. It understands the severity of the crises being experienced by noninsured Californians. Just as important, it understands the traditions of moral reflection which shape the ways faith communities think about these crises. This will undoubtedly be a prophetic report."
Copyright 2005 CRCC and the University of Southern California