Health Care

2010 White Mass Homily, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Feb. 15th

Radio Show, "Morning Air," with Sean Harriott. Guest speaker is Jude Huntz, Director of Human Rights for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, speaking on health care reform and the Bishops' joint pastoral letter.

View the Bishops' Pastoral Letter on Health Care here!

Health Care Reform
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Question and Answer

Q. The Catholic bishops support health care reform. What are the
bishops' key criteria for health care reform?
A. The bishops have been consistent advocates for comprehensive,
life-affirming reform to the nation's health care system. Health care
reform needs to reflect basic moral principles. The bishops believe
access to basic, quality health care is a universal human right not a
privilege. In this light they offer four criteria to guide the process:
a truly universal health policy that respects all human life and
dignity, from conception to natural death; access for all with a special
concern for the poor and inclusion of legal immigrants; pursuing the
common good and preserving pluralism including freedom of conscience and
variety of options; and restraining costs and applying them equitably
across the spectrum of payers.

Q. Why are the bishops so vocal about health care reform?
A. One out of three Americans under the age of 65 went without health
insurance for some period of time during 2007 and 2008. Of these, four
out of five were from working families. Sixty four percent of the
uninsured are employed full time, year round. This state of affairs is
unacceptable. In the Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human
right not a privilege. It is a fundamental issue of human life and
dignity.

Q. Are the bishops trying to promote an anti-abortion agenda through
health care reform?
A. No. The bishops will continue to fight against the evil of abortion by
all means available. But they have not demanded that urgently needed
health care reform become a vehicle for advancing the pro-life cause,
and they likewise believe it should not be used to advance the cause of
abortion. In this sense, the bishops have asked that health care reform
be 'abortion neutral,' this is, that existing laws and policies with
regard to abortion and abortion funding be preserved, allowing health
care reform to move forward and serve its legitimate goals.

Q. Why are the bishops insistent that healthcare reform be 'abortion
neutral'?
A. Abortion advocacy groups are trying to use health care reform to
advance their agenda, by having Congress or a federal official establish
abortion as a 'basic' or 'essential' health benefit,
guaranteeing 'access' nationwide and requiring Americans to
subsidize abortion with their tax dollars or insurance premiums. This
would reverse a tradition of federal laws and policies that have barred
federal funding and promotion of abortion in all major health programs
for over three decades (e.g., the Hyde amendment, 1976), and have
respected the right of health care providers to decline involvement in
abortion or abortion referrals. This agenda would also endanger or
render irrelevant numerous local and state laws regulating abortion. The
bishops cannot, in good conscience, let such an important and pressing
issue as health care reform be hijacked by the abortion agenda. No
health care reform plan should compel anyone to pay for the destruction
of human life, whether through government funding or mandatory coverage
of abortion. Any such action would be morally wrong and politically
unwise.

Q. Are the bishops promoting socialized medicine by advocating for
universal access?
A. All people need and should have access to comprehensive, quality health
care that they can afford, and it should not depend on their stage in
life, where or whether they or their parents work, how much they earn,
where they live, or where they were born. There may be different ways to
accomplish this, but the Bishops' Conference believes health care
reform should be truly universal and genuinely affordable.

Q. Health care is already expensive. Why advocate for legal immigrants
to be covered too?
A. Legal immigrants pay taxes and contribute to the U.S. economy and
social life in the same manner as U.S. citizens do. Therefore, there
should be equity for legal immigrants in access to health care. In the
Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human right, like education,
and having access to it should not depend on where you were born.
Achieving equality in this case, for instance, means repealing the five
year ban currently in effect for legal immigrants to access Medicaid,
and ensuring that all pregnant women in the United States, who will be
giving birth to U.S. citizens, are eligible along with their unborn
children for health care.

Q. What kind of actions do the bishops recommend to make quality
healthcare accessible for all and genuinely affordable?
A. Many lower income families simply lack the resources to meet their
health care expenses. For these families, significant premiums and cost
sharing charges can serve as barriers to obtaining coverage or seeing a
doctor. Medicaid cost-sharing protections should be maintained and new
coverage options should protect the lowest income enrollees from
burdensome cost sharing. The bishops have urged Congress to limit
premiums or exempt families earning less then 200 percent of the Federal
Poverty Level from monthly premiums; they also recommend limiting
co-payments and other costs which could discourage needed care, and
increasing eligibility levels for Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health
Insurance Program). They have urged Congress to provide states with
resources to expand coverage and ensure sufficient funding for safety
net clinics, hospitals and other providers serving those who will
continue to fall through the cracks even after the system is reformed.