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Health Care Reform Background Nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured, tens of millions more are struggling to maintain coverage, and hundreds of thousands suffer from inadequate care. Americans have been demanding change, sparking a broad national debate. Leaders in Washington have been responding by negotiating with health providers and suppliers to gain meaningful concessions and drafting legislation that would lay out a broad new approach to health care. We are closer than ever before to a system of care that will insure all Americans, and yet meaningful health care reform may still slip through our fingers. Absent strong public support, health care reform may fail to be enacted. Raise Your Voice for Quality Affordable Health Care
At long last, there is a window of opportunity
through which Congress can pass meaningful health care reform legislation.
The Christian community and others have advocated long and hard, and
Congress has responded by introducing legislation that reflects some of our
top priorities: covering the most impoverished, expanding affordable
coverage to the working poor, prohibiting the denial of health care coverage
based on
Though a new health care reality is close, we are still not out of the darkness. Congress has not found an answer for how to significantly reduce health care costs – such a change may be beyond the ability of Congress to legislate and may require individuals and doctors to adopt a new approach to health. Though we and legislators believe that preventative care is both medically and economically sound, congressional budgeters’ models have such care raising costs instead of lowering them. The reality of the high costs of the current health care systems means that health care reform and expanding coverage is itself expensive – but doing nothing is unsustainable. Though detractors seek to kill momentum by pointing to the significant costs of reform, as a larger community we need to recognize the difference between waste in the system and meaningful investment in a healthier America. Under current proposals, more affluent Americans are being asked to sacrifice financially for the betterment of all. Legislators are left with a political choice. On one hand, they can seize this historic opportunity and enact broad reform that protects the broadest number of Americans, but at great economic expense. Christian teaching of love of neighbor favors this approach, but Congress might well capitulate to a lower price tag and serve only the middle and upper classes. Opposition comes from other interests, as well. These opponents of health care reform – whose profits are threatened by real reform – are spending $1.4 million a day to defeat this critical health care legislation, or remove vital provisions within it. These voices are telling legislators to do less; to aim for modest reform that would cover fewer people and would, in turn, demand less from businesses, insurers, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and hospitals. Our theology calls us as Christians to enter the public square and speak on behalf of the common good. Christians believe that all human beings are infinitely valued children of God, created in God’s image. Adequate health care, therefore, is a matter of preserving what our gracious God has made. That is why churches and other religious communities have established so many hospitals and other places of healing. People of faith recognize that health care is not a privilege, reserved for those who can afford it, but a right that should be available all. There is another faith principle guiding our advocacy for health care reform – a special concern for society’s most vulnerable members. Pressure from special interests and the lack of adequate political representation raise the probability that the poor and sick are left out of meaningful social reform. Political pressure to reduce the costs of health care legislation will be at the expense of those in our society with the least economic and political might. As faithful Christians, we are called to urge those in leadership in our nation to fulfill their commitment to the vulnerable and sick. Unless the legislation gives adequate attention to the most poor and sick, health care reform legislation will not be worthy of the name. Children are also at risk in health care reform. After 18 months of struggle, in January an expanded Children’s health bill was signed into law. If some of the current legislative proposals go through without modification, it appears millions of children would fare even worse – not better – as a result of the reform. Our children’s health needs to be protected under any larger health care reform measure. Studies have demonstrated that inadequate health care early in life can create significant barriers in education, employment, and can increase likelihood of incarceration. Health care is so determinative that cutting support for our children’s health would be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Together, we must stay the course until health care access for children and adults is protected by law. Many are urging Congress to work at a slower rate. As a people, however, we have learned through previous experience that justice delayed is often justice denied. The same “go slow” tactic that was used to string out segregation is now being applied to health care. We understand that leaders in Congress need some time to get this bill right and to build support. Congress needs to hear from us that while there is some time, the sickest and the poorest cannot wait long for health care reform. If Congress fails to act within the next few months – and many hurdles remain to be overcome – momentum for large-scale reform is unlikely to return for another decade. The next few months will be critical as we begin to form consensus on health care reform. Before reform can become realit, another Senate committee needs to draft a bill expanding and reforming Medicare and Medicaid, and formulating tax changes to pay for such provisions. Both the full U.S. House and Senate need to pass legislation, then behind closed doors, negotiate the differences between their ideas and finally send identical legislation back to each legislative body for another full vote. At any point in this process, the dream of whole scale health care reform may yield to the smaller achievement of incremental change. Members of Congress need to hear from their constituents that health care reform is urgently needed back home and that no one can be left out. August is a critical month for emphasizing to representatives and senators that health care reform is a top priority for their constituents. There is a five-week Congressional recess in Washington, D.C., allowing members of Congress to spend time in their home states assessing what voters want. Some members of Congress, whose vote is needed to pass health care reform, have indicated that they can only support such a bill after being in dialogue their constituents and being heard themselves in the Capitol. Now is the time for real discussion. This is the opportunity for Christians, acting out the sense of love of neighbor, to make their views known. Faith leaders across America have launched "40 Days for Health Reform" - a massive escalation of the faith community's effort to press Congress to pass health insurance reform that makes quality health care affordable for every American family. In recognition of this movement, President Barack Obama has accepted an invitation to join us on a conference call on Wednesday, August 19, at 5:00 pm eastern. It will be a wonderful moment to share with thousands of other people of faith who are working towards our health care future. To RSVP for this call, and to receive the call-in information, visit http://faithforhealth.org/ncc. Add your voice by witnessing on behalf of those in need and contact members of Congress saying that: · Access to health care is sacrosanct, needs to be protected under law, and should not be a privilege you have to buy, but a right to which you are entitled. · Fulfilling our moral commitment requires special attention to the health care rights of children, the poor, disabled and sick. · While we will not tolerate waste in our health care system, we approve spending that invests in the health and coverage of our fellow Americans. · People deserve control over their health care, and should have a choice of public and private plans. · Congress must vote yes on health care legislation that includes protections for the vulnerable so that all may share in the blessings of liberty. There are several paths to being heard by your Congressional representative, but first you need their contact information. This website, http://www.congress.org/congressorg/officials/congress/, will help identify your members of Congress, and by clicking their names you will be shown the contact information for their offices. Call both your regional office and the Washington, D.C. office to voice the principles above. Ask if there is an in-person forum that you can attend. In addition, a link to weekly list of town hall meetings are posted in the middle “News” box at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/. Thank you for your faithfulness to the Lord, whose own healing ministry changed the world!! |
