Religion & Law

According to a forthcoming Urban Institute study, in the absense of meaningful federal health care reform, "more than 60 million Americans could be uninsured within 10 years as insurance premiums increase to unsustainable levels for individuals, families, and businesses.  As a result, private coverage will fall, enrollment in public programs will increase, and the number of uninsured will rise.  Middle-income families will be the hardest hit."

I don't confess to have the answer on this issue, but it is clear that our current, primarily employer-based and voluntary, system of providing health insurance coverage is failing millions of Americans.    It is equally clear that this is unacceptable from the standoint of the social teaching of the Catholic Church, which views heatlh care as a basic human right, grounded in the dignity of the human person. (See, e.g., Pacem in Terris, par. 11, or JPII's 1979 Address to the Generaly Assembly of the UN.) 

The Catholic Health Association has suggested that "[t]he promotion, maintenance, and enhancement of health is a social good with societal responsibility shared by individuals, families, health care providers, voluntary agencies, employers, and governmetns."  How that responsibility gets allocated among those various groups so as to ensure access to health care to all Americans is something that must be confronted.