“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?”
Jeremiah 8:22
No issue has occupied people of faith more this century than assuring that those among us who are injured or unwell find the health care that they need.
Working with a large interfaith community across the country, California Council of Churches has brought their study guide, Being the Good Samaritan to over 10,000 congregations. We have helped congregations discern their own moral views on what they wanted in a fully just, inclusive, affordable, and comprehensive health care system.
Since 2004 CCC has led congregations to bring their concerns to policy makers and opinion leaders so that our voices ultimately would be heeded in whatever policy we developed as a nation. Working with faith allies in Faithful Reform in Health Care we created a faith vision for health care that we shared with those who would create our actual policy and program.
Once federal health reform was a reality, CCC began outreach to congregations on how to make sure those whom we serve would be able to enroll. We received a grant from Covered California, the new health exchange, to do this work collaborating with CLUE-CA (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice) and hiring certified educators to spread the word to congregations on where to go to enroll.
Our outreach has now reached several hundred thousand of our members and many thousands more in congregations and the communities they serve. We have worked successfully to share ‘the balm of Gilead’ with all who need it.
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