" Pope to Lawmakers: Protect All People With Health Care Laws(Part Two) "

"This tendency is clearly visible at the global level, particularly when different countries are compared," Francis said. "But it is also present within the more wealthy countries, where access to health care risks being more dependent on individuals' economic resources than on their actual need for treatment."

Without citing any countries, Francis said health care laws must take a "broad and comprehensive view of what most effectively promotes the common good" in each situation, including looking out for society's most vulnerable people.

The Vatican meeting explored end-of-life issues and Francis repeated decades-old church teaching forbidding euthanasia.

He also reiterated Vatican teaching that says "not adopting, or else suspending, disproportionate measures means avoiding overzealous treatment. From an ethical standpoint, it is completely different from euthanasia, which is always wrong."

In addressing end-of-life issues, the pope said, countries must "defend the fundamental equality whereby everyone is recognized under law as a human being."

Using his nearly five-year-old papacy to highlight the plight of the poor, Francis later made a surprise visit to an area near St. Peter's Basilica where volunteer doctors can give poor people medical exams as part of the church's first-ever World Day of the Poor, to be held Sunday.

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