GC21 Universal Health Services (1964U532)

BE IT RESOLVED THAT this General Council:

1. COMMEND those provinces which have established a comprehensive health services plan and urge those provinces which do not yet have such a plan to provide one as quickly as possible;
2. RECOGNIZE the importance of participation in planning by those professions which provide the services as well as legislators and representative citizens;
3. POINT OUT the need for subsidization from public funds in order that premiums may be kept within the financial resources of low-income families;
4. URGE that health services plans should cover related needs, such as dental care and prescribed drugs and medicines;
5. REQUEST governments, medical schools and all agencies engaged in working out a health plan to give due attention to the problems of recruitment, training and services to the geographically isolated; and
6. CALL UPON the government of Canada to work out with the provinces a co-ordinated National Health Services Plan.

Recommendation

WHEREAS there is an urgent Christian imperative that the health needs of all citizens be adequately met, regardless of income, age, isolation or chronic illness; and

WHEREAS the General Council of The United Church of Canada in 1952, 1954 and 1960 stated its support for the establishment of a comprehensive Nation Health Insurance Plan; and

WHEREAS the Royal Commission on Health Services, known as the Hall Commission, has recommended to the federal government the institution of a comprehensive, universal health services program for the Canadian people:

“IMPLEMENTED in accordance with Canada’s evolving constitutional arrangements,

BASED upon freedom of choice and upon free and self-governing professions and institutions,

FINANCED through prepayment arrangements

ACCOMPLISHED through the full cooperation of the general public, the health professions, voluntary agencies, all political parties and governments, federal, provincial, and municipal,

DIRECTED towards the most effective use of the nation’s health resources to attain the highest possible levels of physical and mental well-being”:

It is Recommended:

THAT this General Council call upon the government of Canada to proceed to develop such a comprehensive, universal health services program, with the cooperation of the provinces and the health professions involved.

GC21 1964 ROP, pp. 47, 116-17