Washington, July 7, 2009 – The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, issued the following statement at a press conference on the occasion of the Religious Leaders Health Care Summit:

The National Council of Churches is a community of 35 Christian denominations, Protestant and Orthodox.  Together, our churches have some 45 million members in more than 100,000 congregations—which helps make us an important voice in public discussion of an issue like health care.  We are pleased to work closely on many issues, including this one, with the Roman Catholic Church, and to find common cause with neighbors of other faiths.  Just as health care legislation should be bipartisan, so the support of such legislation is appropriately interfaith.

Health care is not simply another worthy cause to which we lend our name.  Christians believe that human beings—all of them—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.  And why we are convinced that health care is not a privilege, reserved for those who can afford it, but a right that should be available, at high quality, to all.

There is another principle undergirding our approach to this crucial topic: namely, a special concern for society’s most vulnerable members.  Unless it gives priority attention to the poorest and the sickest, health care reform legislation will not be worthy of the name.  With this in mind, the churches that constitute the NCC favor legislation that

■  has significant limits on cost sharing imposed on the poor,

■  expands comprehensive coverage that low-income children and families receive through Medicaid and CHIP,

■  ensures sufficient funding for safety-net hospitals and clinics,

■  promotes preventative care,

■  prohibits denying coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions.

As General Secretary of the National Council, I want to thank President Obama and several congressional leaders for their initiative in making health care reform a priority for this administration and this Congress.  Let me assure them that the NCC is prepared to engage in education, advocacy, and public witness on behalf of legislation that upholds the principles outlined above.  We will vigorously press our case for a bill that best improves health care for the poor (which, we believe, includes a public health insurance option); but we will not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.  This is the moment that our nation must seize.  It is urgent to enact meaningful reform now!