 |
Faithful can play a role in health reformPosted: 06.19.09 Early this month – as the Obama administration rolled out its ideas for reforming the nation’s health care system and the Congress prepared to begin debating legislation – organizations representing both the Florida and U.S. bishops sent e-mails urging the Catholic faithful to make their voices on the topic heard in Washington. Both the Florida Catholic Conference and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops asked recipients of the action alerts to contact their senators and representatives to ask them to support efforts to make health care accessible for all, particularly the poor. Bishops also asked the faithful to demand a health reform plan that respects the life and dignity of the human person from conception to natural death, keeps intact the ban on federal funding for abortion and restrains costs and spreads them equitably. The U.S. bishops’ alert, dated June 2, also highlighted an example of a community that didn’t wait for Washington to begin expanding access to health care. That community was Polk County in Florida’s Diocese of Orlando, and the progress was made at the behest of a coalition of churches that includes three Catholic parishes and receives funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The organization – Polk Ecumenical Action Council for Empowerment, or PEACE – helped persuade 62 percent of voters to adopt a half-penny sales tax to raise $26 million a year for health care for the county’s poor and uninsured. PEACE followed up with another advocacy campaign, winning commitments from the county to open five new primary-care health clinics in areas of high need, with fees set on a sliding scale based on income. The first clinic opened in 2007 and another is set to open this year. PEACE is not alone. There are 14 ecumenical or interfaith social-justice coalitions in Florida affiliated with two national community-organizing networks. Nearly if not all of them have Catholic parishes in their ranks. Many have health care projects on their agendas. Like one of the national networks – the Direct Action and Research Training Center, or DART Center – many of the affiliates have long, sometimes awkward-sounding names to force ear-friendly acronyms such as PEACE and FAITH. (The initials of the other network, PICO National Network, don’t really stand for anything anymore.) No matter what you call them, these organizations are performing welcome work, building the kingdom of God in their communities. That so many of them have been pressing their local governments to make health care more available and affordable is a sure sign of the need for sweeping reform at the national level. The local funding and facilities that ecumenical and interfaith social-justice coalitions have helped secure around the nation hold promise to be a valued part of a new health care landscape. Ordinary Catholics in Florida can play a role in shaping that future by becoming involved in such local efforts. The also can play a role by answering the bishops’ call to add their voices to the conversation that’s going in Washington. Bishop William F. Murphy, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, told a U.S. Senate committee May 20, “Decent health care is not a privilege, but a basic human right and a requirement to protect the life and dignity of every person.” Catholics who agree should speak up. To find an ecumenical or interfaith social-justice organization near you, please visit the Dart Center or the PICO National Network.
|
Advertisement
|