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The Center for Healthcare Reform
The Center seeks to change the way the public understands healthcare reform.
Through “public conscience work” the Center works to
- Build a shared understanding that complex social infrastructures must grow from a clear vision of their purpose and the priorities needed to achieve that purpose.
- Create tools for engaging the American public in processes leading to a shared solution that will promise all Americans better health and some security in the face of mounting healthcare costs.
- Develop collaborative relationships and communities for the development, improvement, and dissemination of these tools.
Our Mission:
To help move the American public
to a clarity of mind that is so specific and strong,
to a strength of will that is so resolute,
that no other socio-political force or ideology, can derail the energy to put in place this vision of a just and sustainable healthcare system.
The Center was started in 2002 to be both a catalyst and a partner with others in advocating for a just national healthcare system. The Center is part of the St. Joseph Health System, a 14-hospital non- profit system in Northern and Southern California, West Texas/ Eastern New Mexico. Back to top.
St. Joseph Health System
The mission of St. Joseph Health System is to extend the Catholic health care ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange by continually improving the health and quality of life of people in the communities we serve. The Center for Healthcare Reform invites people of all faiths to join in a movement to create healthcare policies and practices that are fair and sane. Back to top.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange have endeavored to bring the values of dignity, service, excellence and justice to healthcare for nearly a century. In 1912, a small contingent of the Sisters of St. Joseph came to Eureka, California, at the invitation of the local bishop, to establish a school. A few years later, the great influenza epidemic of 1918 caused the sisters to temporarily abandon their education efforts to care for the sick in their homes. Back to top.
Who We Are
Jack Glaser, SVD, MA
- Senior Vice President, Theology & Ethics, St. Joseph Health System
- Director, Center for Healthcare Reform
Jack Glaser holds graduate degrees in Philosophy, English Literature, Psychology and Theology. He earned his Doctor of Theology at the Professional School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt, Main, West Germany.
Jack served as Director of Ethics for the Sisters of Mercy Health Corporation, Vice President of Mount Carmel Mercy Hospital, Detroit, and Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Detroit and at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois. He was a Jesuit for twenty years and served as a psychotherapist in private practice.
In 2000 Jack was asked to join the faculty of Creighton University Center for Ethics and Health Policy as a Senior Fellow.
He has authored three books, several dozen articles, and a score of videotapes, poetry and photographic work. He is currently writing a book on Healthcare Reform. Back to top.
Mary Enid Pinkerson. Ph.D.
- Community Programs, Center for Healthcare Reform, St. Joseph Health System
Mary Enid Pinkerson holds a Masters Degree from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and a Ph.D. in Social Ethics/Religion from the University of Southern California (USC). Her study of participatory democracy in the development of the Oregon Health Plan earned the Leonard Family Dissertation Award.
Mary has taught courses in the sociology of religion, and ethics at USC, California State University-Long Beach, and the University of Judaism and served as a Jewish community professional in Cincinnati, San Francisco and Long Beach, CA. She comes to the Center from California Health Decisions, where she worked on expanding access to health coverage for children and community education on prescription drug issues. Back to top.
Carolyn Olney
- Advocacy Manager, St. Joseph Health System
Carolyn Olney manages the SJHS Advocacy web site and related projects. Prior to joining the St. Joseph Health System in August, Carolyn worked in communications and marketing at a non-profit cancer screening clinic in Los Angeles.
Carolyn has an extensive background in communications for non-profit organizations, as well as a long history of leadership with anti-poverty organizations in advocacy and program development. She co-founded and co-chaired a statewide coalition which trains leaders in anti-hunger programs.
Carolyn has an M.Div. from the Claremont School of Theology, with an emphasis in Urban Ministry, and a BA in American Studies from California State University, Fullerton. Back to top.
What We Believe
The Problem
The United States is the only industrialized country in the world in which all citizens do not have access to health coverage. As a nation, we are lacking a guiding vision, a unified understanding and a recognizable authority for providing healthcare. Instead, random political and economic forces that are often in conflict with one another direct policy and practice. The result is the developed world’s most irrational and unjust system for providing healthcare to the citizens of a nation.
The Center for Healthcare Reform is engaging partners to work for both short and long term solutions. Advocacy brings the needs of the disadvantaged to the immediate and ongoing attention of elected officials. The Center is also initiating public dialogues on the role of healthcare in a just society to build the public will necessary for lasting change to occur. Back to top.
The Solution
Creating a just and reasonable healthcare system for America will involve a seismic shift in our thinking about the issue. This will require awakening the nation’s consciousness and conscience in the way that grassroots movements led to other major transformations of society such as universal education, the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage. We cannot create effective programs without engaging in a process that begins with defining the healthcare system’s purpose, deciding on our priorities and crafting a plan. Change of this magnitude is the fruit of a sensitized national conscience moving to effect reform. Back to top.
Healthcare Reformed
We promote a system that:
- Honors Limits : Healthcare grows in proportion to its role and the rate of growth, and not in a way that harms other social goods.
- Is Balanced : Healthcare expenditures are equitable across services and populations.
- Is Universal : Essential services are available to all as a social good, rather than an expensive commodity only available to those who can afford them.
- Respects Explicit Hard Choices : Processes are in place to define appropriate priorities for the use of healthcare resources.
- Gives Priority to Those Most in Need : Because of their vulnerability and society’s discrimination, disadvantaged
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