Health Policy and Global Disease
"I kept my faith, even when I said, 'I am greatly afflicted.'" Psalms 116:10
Health is central to our well-being, vital to relationships, and helps us live out our vocations in family, work, and community. Caring for one’s own health is a matter of human necessity and good stewardship. Caring for the health of others expresses both love for our neighbors and responsibility for a just society. As a personal and social responsibility, health care is a shared endeavor.
- Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor
From smoking bans to seatbelt laws, health care reform to HIV/AIDS testing, public policy is integral to any discussion about health, public health, and health care. The ELCA social statement, Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor, states:
“Our search for justice is a call from God, a concern especially for the ‘rights of the needy’ (Jeremiah 5:28). Because health is central to personal well-being and functioning in society, a just society is one that supports the health of all its members.”
In response to God’s love, we as the ELCA work to promote the health and healing of all people, which includes advocating for just, compassionate, and effective health care policy. Specifically, “[i]mproving access to health care and finding adequate support for public health and preventive, acute, and long-term care services for all are critical advocacy challenges. They require thoughtful deliberation and bold, continuing advocacy by Christian citizens and all expressions of this church.”