VANCOUVER - The B.C. Nurses Union says the province should deepen its commitment to public health care.

The demand is included in the union's submission to the government's Conversation of Health, a public process aimed at helping reform the health-care system.

The union says in its submission that health care is too fundamental to the well-being of the community to be treated as a just another commodity that can be bought and sold….

The nurses also want more services for seniors such as home care, home support and affordable assisted-living and long-term care, better drug-cost control - including a national pharmacare plan - and attacking the social roots of poor health such as inadequate income, lack of quality child care and affordable housing and a safe, healthy environment….