The health-care reform debate has been
going on in our country for decades.
Post-Depression Roosevelt and Truman
tried it, as did Nixon and, more recently,
Clinton. Rising health-care costs
made health-care reform a major campaign
issue last November.
Increasing numbers of Americans are
falling out of our health-care system,
including growing numbers of the middle
class. More than a fourth (27 percent)
of the U.S. population is without
health-care insurance. That’s 47 million
Americans who lack health insurance,
up from about 40 million in 1980, an almost
20-percent rise. Even for the insured,
personal costs are skyrocketing.
President Barack Obama tried unsuccessfully
to force Congress to develop a
reform plan during the past few months.
Congress and much of the American
public have forced a slowdown as the
complicated debate continues. Seeing
conservatives rally anti-reform opposition,
the president late last summer traveled
afar to take his appeal to the people.
President Obama has affirmed that
health-care reform means insurance
for all and self-selected insurance for
those who can afford it.
As today’s debate ripens, political liberals
and conservatives have mounted
enormous advertising campaigns. “Harry
and Louise,” featured in a well-known
TV ad opposing a reformed health-care
plan in the 1990s, have now returned,
this time on the pro-reform side. On the
other side, the company that produced
the Kerry-sinking “swift boat” ads is generating
opposition ads and disingenuously
speaking of “death panels.”
Campaigns on the left, right and
middle have spent upwards of $57 million
on TV ads, most of it since July. It’s
a whopping effort on both sides. The
essential question is this: Is health-care
reform a government takeover (socialized
medicine), as political conservatives
claim, or is it justice (a longneeded
move toward health care for
those who have none), the claim of
political liberals?
Clearly, we are a nation divided.
SPONSORED LINKS
 Catholic Health Care
Our U.S. Catholic bishops have advocated
reform for 30 years. The Church,
after all, is a major player in U.S. health
care. Bishop William Murphy, of
Rockville Centre, New York, is chair of
the U.S. bishops’ committee that deals
with domestic issues. In a July 21 letter
to Congress, he laid out Catholic concerns
in the health-care debate.
In his letter Bishop Murphy noted
that health care is not “just another
cause” for the Catholic community.
“Health care is a critical component of
the Church’s ministry. The Church provides
health care, purchases health care
and picks up the pieces of a failing
health-care system.” Catholic hospitals
care for a sixth of all U.S. patients,
notes Murphy: “We bring both strong
convictions and everyday experience.”
He makes a solid case for sweeping
reform, saying, “The bishops’ conference
believes health-care reform should
be truly universal and it should be genuinely
affordable.” It is a “moral imperative
and a vital national obligation.”
He devotes much of his letter to two
deep concerns for all Catholics: 1) respect
for life and dignity, and 2) access
for all.
To be clear: Catholics oppose abortion,
and any health-care reform that
includes abortion is not acceptable to
the Catholic community. The early versions
of the plan did so, in some form.
As Bishop Murphy states so well,
“No health-care reform plan should
compel us or others to pay for the
destruction of human life, whether
through government funding or
mandatory coverage of abortion.”
This respect for life must also honor
the sanctity of the end of life, respect for
life “from conception until natural
death.”
The second pillar of the Catholic
position is access for all. “Decent health
care is not a privilege,” writes Murphy,
“but a right and a requirement to protect
the life and dignity of every person.”
Access to health care should not
depend on the type of work people
have, whether or not their parents
work, people’s age, where they live or
even where they were born. He notes
what many well-off Americans would
seemingly rather ignore: that “many
lower-income families simply lack the
resources to meet their health-care
expenses.”
Is this the America that we want to
live in? One with a growing number of
people left on their own to deal with
their illnesses?
We think not.
Opponents of an increased role for government
often cite the “long lines” and
“poor care” of programs in Canada and
Europe. Why else would some Canadians
come here for treatment? Others
speak of efficient, affordable health
care overseas and in Canada.
Either way, people of goodwill can’t
help but wrangle over various aspects
of health reform while the debate
ensues. This is America, after all. But we
have to keep in mind the bias of our
Catholic faith, one that looks out especially
for the poor and vulnerable.
Wasn’t that the discovery of St.
Francis and countless other Christians
over the centuries? Babies in the womb
are the most vulnerable of all—we must
protect them and their mothers. Our
faith compels us to stand up for the
poor and anyone without proper health
care.
Our bishops are on the right track in
their advice to Congress. Don’t support
abortion. Make health care accessible
to all. That’s reform we can stand
behind.—J.F. |
