Kinnamon expresses gratitude for efforts to reform health care

New York, March 22, 2010 -- The General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, who last week sent a "straight forward" message to Congress that it is time to pass "a desperately-needed reform of this country's health care system," today expressed his gratitude that health care reform will become law.

“This act is necessary to protect the most vulnerable members of society, the uninsured, millions of whom are children,” said the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon.

"I regret that the process to enact this law has been so bitterly divisive," Kinnamon said, "but I suspect all that will be forgotten once the public has had a chance to experience the benefits of a more inclusive system.”

He recalled the "bruising debate in Congress" when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed Social Security during the Great Depression.

"Even after Social Security was enacted, opposing senators attempted to prevent its implementation by filibustering against measures to fund it," Kinnamon said. "Today we can't imagine life in this country without Social Security. Making health care available to a wider number of Americans is the right and moral thing to do, and the time will come when we can't imagine our lives without it."