Bishops
Support Health Policy That Respects Life and
Dignity
Following is a Question & Answer position
paper produced by the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops to assist the
faithful in reflecting on health care
reform. It is a coordinated effort by the
Conference and it represents the Diocese of
Scranton position on this issue.
The Catholic Bishops support health care
reform. What are the Bishops’ key criteria
for health care reform?
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.
Why are the Bishops so vocal about health
care reform?
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.
Are the Bishops trying to promote an
anti-abortion agenda through health care
reform?
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.
Why are the Bishops insistent that health
care reform be “abortion neutral”?
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.
Are the Bishops promoting socialized
medicine by advocating for universal access?
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.
Health care is already expensive. Why
advocate for legal immigrants to be covered
too?
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.
What kind of actions do the Bishops
recommend to make quality health care
accessible for all and genuinely affordable?
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.
The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops (USCCB) has launched a Web page
promoting its support of “truly universal
health policy with respect for human life
and dignity.” The page includes letters from
bishops to Congress, videos, facts and
statistics, frequently asked questions, and
links for contacting members of Congress.
See
www.usccb.org/healthcare
