NCC welcomes U.S. Supreme Court
decision
upholding individual health insurance requirement

New
York, June 28, 2012 -- The National Council of Churches today welcomed
today's decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upholds the core of the
Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as "Obama Care."
The Supreme Court has upheld
the individual insurance requirement at the heart of President Barack
Obama's health care overhaul, rejecting arguments that Congress went too far
in requiring most Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty.
"The member communions of the National Council
of Churches have supported readily available health care since we were
formed in 1950 during the Truman Administration," said Kathryn M. Lohre, NCC
President.
"We as churches follow the bold example of Jesus, who
healed the sick, sometimes breaking the religious law that governed
society," Lohre said.
"Our members have always believed that health care is not simply another
worthy cause to which we lend our name," said Lohre.
"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."
Lohre said, "There is another principle undergirding our approach to this crucial topic:
namely, a special concern for society’s most vulnerable members. The basic
principles we have always supported require our nation to provide health
care 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, and prohibits denying
coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions."
The National Council of Churches is a community of 37 Christian
denominations, Protestant and Orthodox. Together, our churches have some 40
million members in more than 100,000 congregations. "This helps make us an
important voice in public discussion of an issue like health care," Lohre
said. "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 programs and the legislation that mandate them should be
bipartisan, so the support of such legislation is appropriately interfaith."
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of
the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for
shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's
37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican,
Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace
churches -- include 40 million persons in more than 100,000 local
congregations in communities across the nation.
NCC News contact:
Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell),
pjenks@ncccusa.org
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