The Health Care Bills that are currently being worked on by a joint committee of the US House and Senate are not perfect bills and after the compromises necessary to pass them will be even less perfect.  Nonetheless, it is important to pass Health Care legislation at this time.  Our Church teaches that access to health care is a right, not a privilege or a consequence of charity.   Therefore we ought to do all we can to help people everywhere in our country be able to have affordable health care, and a health care that does not allow insurers to say no when a person applies for health insurance with a previous health condition that, right now, makes them ineligible for insurance.   It would have been wonderful to see in the current bills a proviso for a public option.  As the bills are currently structured millions of Americans will still be uninsured, especially among the poor, and undocumented aliens will not be allowed to purchase insurance even if they can afford it.  So, much needs to be done and can be done in future years to make the final bill that will be presented to President Obama better.  But right now, Congress needs to pass, and the President needs to sign a bill that will be the biggest expansion of the social contract our government has with its people.   A good bill will begin the battle to lower the costs of getting sick in this country.  Many of the people in our parish have been sick in the past few months, with long hospital stays and the best that medical science has to offer in trying to stem disease or prevent death or both.   But I shudder to think of the hospital bills that are currently or will shortly be slipping across home desks in our parish alone that will be astronomically high, and even for the insured, difficult to deal with because of high co-payments.  Can a shot of any medicine really cost $23,000?   Well, the co-pay was only $800 we say.  But suppose you needed five shots of that medicine?  Those co-pays are suddenly very expensive.  What would you do if you needed that shot and had no insurance?  Medical costs need to be cut. Saying, yes I’m for universal health insurance isn’t enough.  We need to work together to make sure it happens.  That means letters to our Representatives in the House, and to our Senators telling them that we want universal health care and we want them to do something about it other than squabbling.  There must be within the ranks of our Congress men and women some who will be willing to put aside politics in order to act as statesmen and women for the good of all the people. Social Security was not a perfect bill when it first came before Congress, but it was improved over time.  Civil Rights legislation was not perfect at first, but it improved with time.  Now is the time for us to adopt a bill for universal health care that may not be perfect, but with time will be improved to provide justice to all of our people.  It is a Gospel worthy task to embark upon.

Rev. John Geaney, CSP
Pastor
January 31, 2010