Any changes to health care law under the new administration should not abandon the principal of genuinely affordable health care for everyone, said the U.S. bishops in a letter to Congress.
In American policy, they said, “we must not see health care as a luxury, but as a necessary building block to help individuals and families thrive and contribute to the good of the community and the nation.”
“We recognize that the law has brought about important gains in coverage, and those gains should be protected,” Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida said in a Jan. 18 letter to members of Congress.
He wrote in his role as chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
For the U.S. bishops, any repeal of key provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act should not take place “without the concurrent passage of a replacement plan that ensures access to adequate health care for the millions of people who now rely upon it for their wellbeing.”
President-elect Donald Trump, in a press conference last week, pressed for a speedy repeal of the health care legislation commonly known as Obamacare. He has also spoken of replacing the legislation with his own proposals that promise “insurance for everybody” and “much lower deductibles,” CNN reports.
However, some Congressional Republicans have voiced concern about any vote that would end major parts of the 2010 law that covers 20 million people without providing an alternative, creating widespread disruptions.
The U.S. bishops emphasized that health care reform “should be truly universal and it should be genuinely affordable.”
Full story at Catholic News Agency.
Somehow we must get all Americans to believe and support the idea that basic health care is a human right. That is what the Church teaches. Some are worried about the cost. That is a valid concern, obviously. But first, we must get agree about the right to health care, then we can get on with how to afford it. Other nations do it. So can we. If we are to continue with the broken system of private insurance, vs. single payer, then we must make affordable insurance available for every one. That is different from “access” to insurance. We must have insurance that covers pre-existing conditions, children to age 26, free annual physical, free mammograms, etc. I have a friend who’s granddaughter was refused coverage at age 14…
Church Tradition does not teach that a person has a right to health care.
Bob One, it is futile to point this out, but:
(1) the Catholic Catechism never states that “government” should provide healthcare nor “health insurance”: #2288 “Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions ..[including healthcare]”. SOCIETY, that means us, can and will provide for its fellow human, given the opportunity, which was the case up until Obamacare.
(2) I have never heard your response to the fact that Obamacare now, in its 3rd year of operations, as predicted in 2012, has caused a decrease in US life expectancy:
https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/06/why-life-expectancy-will-decline-under.html
see the update, 2016:
https://www.cnsnews…
update 2016:
https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/hans-bader/
Why? Because government’s objectives are not the same as the individual’s needs, and as the Economic Policy Journal predicted exactly in 2012, government will disconnect the essential choice of the individual from the health care provider and will result in an increase in mortality.
The precipitous decline in US life expectancy recorded at the end of 2016 hasn’t occurred in decades: and yet all progressives are silent about the destruction wreaked by “Obamacare” — which again, is not even health insurance at all, but a Rube-Goldberg system of cost-shifting to winners and losers, pre-determined by the government. So, why, Bob One, do your progressive ilk “want…
..people to die, and die early?” That is the shameful accusation thrown out at non-progressives after all: I am sure you can provide us an answer.
Just lost a friend over the weekend. Back decades ago, recently reconnected. I’m pretty sure his wishes were to not be aided or resuscitated. My last visit with him he was almost entirely unresponsive. At leaving, I reached over and said, “Good to see you NAME”. He whispered back in undiscernible voice “Good to see you too”. What if his wishes didn’t take into account for the fact that he was too unable to ask for food? What if we could have fed him? What if that was against what HE wanted? What God wanted? These are questions I will go to my grave asking.
“the broken system of private insurance vs. single payer”? Let’s put it in clearer terms: private insurance vs. socialized medicine; private insurance vs. a system which affords the patient no right to choose their doctor, which restricts their treatment options which the “single payer” [read: the government] offers, which forces the patient to endure the waiting-times-to-treatment which the government offers–even if it means dying while waiting. In other words, the National Health Service in Britain. Watch the Prime Minister’s Question Time [C-SPAN] every Sunday evening to see how well that’s working. Look up how many Canadians cross the border to the USA to get treated for conditions like brain tumors and other medical…
conditions which they pay out-of-pocket for from the 1st dollar [because no “private insurance” is available to them] because the socialized medicine waiting times equal a death sentence.
We need to fix the private insurer system to eliminate the cozy regulations that benefit insurers, like the inability to sell health insurance across state lines. But to fall for the siren song of expecting only the government to provide for your unique individual health needs in a one-size-fits-all manner is madness.
It is to buy into a pie-in-the-sky scheme which has not worked and which only wild socialist utopians favor. Bernie Sanders, anyone?
E.g., The Hip Replacement capital of Canada is Cincinnati, Ohio.
Bob One, Planned Parenthood has never done mammograms. They send women to other government clinics for those. I checked it out myself a long time ago after hearing about it from pro lifers by calling at least two Planned Parenthoods in my area. By the way, Donald Trump just signed legislation cutting off government funding to Planned Parenthood, but increasing funding to those clinics that DO DO mammograms. How about “them” apples!
I seriously doubt that the US Bishops (or the media) understand that “Obamacare” is not an insurance plan at all, but a Rube Goldberg system of cost-shifting and crediting against premium costs with a “real” insurer. It is supposed to give a full-credit for costs associated with a “SIlver Level Plan” (a high deductible plan, BTW, determined by the central controllers of course) if one is at or below the Federal Poverty Level [in 2016, about $12,000; for a family of 4, $24,000 (approx. costs)], and the premium credit phases out at 4x the FPL. But in actual fact, in CA, most persons earning under $25k (single) or a family of 4 at approx. $50k qualify routinely for a state Medi-Cal plan. So, if Obamacare is stricken, no one is…
..going to “lose coverage” and “be thrown out on the streets to die” (one of the favorite death-threats), but will transit into a state Medicaid/Medi-Cal plan, or in fact be able to once again afford a private policy on their own, because the many “mandated” coverages (such as sex-change operations, drug-rehabilitation therapy, abortions, etc) can be excluded by the policyholder by agreement with the plan offered by the insurer.
And by the way, here is a discussion of how the Central Planners of Obamacare—which is not a health plan at all—pressured and threatened all the subsidiary insurers (so in this state, that is Kaiser Healthplan and Anthem Blue Cross) that participated in the ACA until now they have to cover gender-change surgery:
https://obamacarefacts.com/questions/is-there-transgender-health-coverage/
This is an example, just one, of why costs with “Obamacare”–which is not a health plan at all, US Bishops—have exploded and is unsustainable. Obama and the Central Planners, wishing to impose their Perfect Society on us all via “health care planning”, are entirely to blame.
We all had healthcare before Barack Hussein. Paupers went to County Hospitals, neighborhood clinics, emergency rooms, and if they were legal they got Medicad. With Obamacare it is worse for all in the name of social equality. I lost my gold plated Aetna insurance and now must make do with inferior Bluecross, although I have the same job. I liked my plan but could not keep my plan because Obama lied. Cancel this unconstitutional ‘tax’ law and let the non-workers and illegal aliens return to Medicaid and County Hospitals.
Catholic bishops should get more in the mood of tomorrow’s good news that will Make America Great Again.
Domald Trump is right, we must repeal first and Commie bishops should stick to their…
Gratias, one doesn’t go to the emergency room for health care, they go because the are injured or not in good health. Paupers is a term not used for a while. If you and your spouse work forty hours per week in a job that pays $10 per hour, you have a gross income of $41,600. In California you will pay about $1,200 per month for a two bedroom apartment ($3,000 in San Fran), $14,000 per year. You will pay about $3,000 for Social Security, $5,000 in taxes- $21,000 taken out of your pay so far. $5,000 for food, who knows how much for gas and car payments, etc, etc. Now, where does the $1,000 per month, $12,000 per year come from for health insurance. Hard working people can’t afford health care without some sort of health, even when…
Bob One, in California Obamacare serves to insure illegal aliens and the poor, mostly non-working classes. It is Medicaid which we always had. The rest of Obamacare covers self-employed who have enormous deductibles because of mandates such a contraception, abortifacients, abortion, sex changes for all. The Church invented hospitals to take care of paupers and pilgrims. Our county hospitals in California were very effective. People crossed from Mexico just to present themselves at emergency rooms and have heart surgery that could not be done at home.
You really need to get a grip on your outmoded view on life in the U.S. A . You are about 25-30years behind reality. It doesn’t matter if someone is legal or illegal. If they are sick, we need to take care of them.
Would like to add that I greatly enjoy reading your liberal perspective Bob One. CCD has a good mix of opinion and your interventions are thoughtful and respectful. The pendulum has swung so it will be an interesting few years.
It will be an interesting four years. The marches all over the country demonstrate how afraid women are of the Trump Presidency. My wife, two of my daughters and three of my granddaughters marched in the demonstration because they are afraid of what this administration and Congress could do to the health of women and kids. In California, (this is not a good thing) the poor women of the state only have Planned Parenthood as a place to get basic health care. There is a lot about the Affordable Care Act that needs changing, but let’s remember that it did away with previous conditions, mad mammograms free, made annual checkups free, made coverage for kids up to 26 free, etc. The primary problems I see with it is the system of paying for…
The pre-paid, pre-orchestrated Women’s March is entirely allied with the pro-abortion movement, and was comprised of 50 Soros-funded groups, Mr Bob, of which population control is one of their 3 major goals. Is that the crowd your wife and daughters want to be a part of, really?
anonymous Anselm: You are completely repeating fake news. Please, show any evidence whatsoever that Soros funded these marches in any way that would entice almost THREE MILLION to turnout in the US, maybe as many as 5 MILLION worldwide. Do you really think Soros paid these women (and a few good men) to turn out? If so, I’m looking for my payout, as I’m sure Bob One’s wife and children are. Please don’t repeat fake falsified news. You might not like their message, but they were not paid participants.
Then you once again are very ignorant of facts: Andrew Tavani, investigative journalist with the NY Times (of all places) published his findings Jan.20th (titled, “Billionaire Partner George Soros Has Ties to More than 50 ‘Partners’ of the Women’s March”) going through filings of Soros’ Open Society foundation, and provides links to 56 different orgs that were funded for this long-planned march. It is an extensive factual accounting of this ersatz protest.
Read and educate yourself.
The main writer of the story, Asrah Nomani, is a conservative Muslim woman who is opposed to abortion, and she documents the “Women’s March” was hardly spontaneous, but a long-planned identity politics function of the now-ever-more-extreme radical left.
Three million people did not leave their homes and march in streets because Soros’ foundations gave grants to some organizations. The cost of these marches was minimal, and any money to have AV equipment rentals, safety officers, etc, was a trivial expense. None of the 3 million marchers were paid to march. Period. Saying otherwise is stating a lie.
Any honest approach to health care is not possible without a complete repeal of Obamacare and all other federal bills and regulations that led to it. Drastic yes! But necessary! Each intrusion by government into the health care market place has caused unintended consequences that were addressed by further intrusions until the health care market place was destroyed, this was the ultimate goal of Obamacare, and the destruction of the market place will ultimately destroy health care itself. The survival of Obamacare or a replacement to save coverage will only result in the destruction of healthcare.
Jake, what were the unintended consequences of Medicare?
Billions in unfunded liabilities…
Well, someone is funding Medicare, right? I don’t think doctors are working for free.
As of 2014—before draconian further cuts in 2015 to Medicare reimbursement rates — Medicare was only paying 80% of what private insurance pays–private insurance of course already paying perhaps only 50-75% of actual costs:
https://www.forbes.commerrillmatthews/2015/01/05/doctors-face-a-huge-medicare-and-medicaid-pay-cut-in-2015/#1a8a4f6b5c6d
In 2015, Obama administration reduced these doctor’s reimbursement rates another 21% as the Forbes article mentions: Medicaid, or Medi-Cal, is even less. As a result, doctors are refusing new Medicare AND Medi-Cal patients because it is driving them bankrupt:
https://healthblog.ncpa.org/one-in-five-doctors-say-no-new-medicare-patients/
Time to open one’s eyes and smell the…
..coffee: Venezuela comes to US healthcare industry.
If I had a choice between socialized medicine and for profit private medical insurance, I choose socialized medicine. Liberal socialist Michael Moore, with all his problems, was at least able to show in his documentary, Sicko, the insanity of our broken medical system of for profit insurance. The system of old Catholic France sure did look at lot better.
There is however, a better way to do it according to Catholic Social Teaching. Medical guilds could be set up instead. They would control training and prices for their members. The elimination of medical patents is also needed. A reform of medical licenses is another solution. Nurses, midwives, and medical assistants can as easily provide clinic care as opposed to doctors who would…
Asbury Fox, your post was cut off, so maybe you’d like to finish your thoghts. In the meantime, I’m curious what you think the differences are between guilds and, say, the Kaiser Permanentes of the world? What would you change about licesnsing? You’d let anybody operate on you who claims they are qualified? And as to patents, how would you fund the work of research and development that goes into innovation?
I’m asking, not in opposition, but to encourage creative thought about problems like ours, and to try to understand any good ideas you might have.
The universal catechism of the church (green) which is a guide for development of local catechisms says p 552 that concern for citizens requires civil units to provide citizens with basic living conditions -food, clothing and health care. The catechism for adults in the United States, in the chapter “Blessed is the Generous Heart” p 454, states that Christian discipleship necessitates working to ensure that all people have access to food, education, health care, employment, etc and that we must build up civil society to share social good with others. The teachings of the Church are in the section on the Fifth Commandment
Right, I agree totally, Bob One: “civil units” are to provide citizens with basic living conditions–not government orgs.
So why did the USCCB leadership (Bp. Stephen Blaire esp.) and “catholic” lobby organizations such as Sr. Simone Campbell’s NETWORK org stridently insist for the past many years on legislatively imposed government healthcare? NETWORK states that the [Un]Affordable [Loss-of-]Care Act, at their site network.org, is the expression of “catholic (small ‘c’) social teaching?
So we both agree the USCCB leadership and other “catholic” orgs have misguided us, correct, Bob One, in trying to martial us all into government controlled “healthcare”?
In this context, “civil units” is government. It does fall into the category of social teaching. I see this issue as having two major components, neither of which our governments are really willing to fix. First, let us agree that everyone should have good basic health care. Then, let us agree on ways to deliver that good basic health care at an affordable cost. Major change in society always follows some kind of disruption to the marketplace. Let’s keep government out of the insurance business, but allow the government to define basic health care and then the kind of system to pay for it. We have the mental resources to do that.
Part II. There are new approaches to health care delivery. The notion of a doctor operating a “private practice” will be obsolete in 5-10 years. They will all be a member of a medical group attached to a hospital group connected by great technology. Even today, nearly 40% of health care in rural America is delivered by Nurse Practitioners or Physician Assistants. Over 40% of women who use medical clinics in California are on Medical. In some areas Planned Parenthood is the only place they can get basic health care because doctors won’t take them on as patients. Insurance companies need to be forced to be able to cross state lines. Insurance needs to be portable so that when you lose your job you don’t lose your health care…
No, Bob One, the Catechism states that 2288 “Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions ..[including healthcare]” NOT any mention of “government” You are blatantly trying to re-write your own Catechism.
And by the way, “Obamacare” is not a health insurance plan, nor is it even healthcare: I don’t think you know how it works (see post above about FPL, premium subsidies, and the Advance Premium Tax Credit): it is a government bureaucracy regulating who gets care and for what price.
Try the Free Market, dear Bishops. You can’t go wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6vjrzUplWU
Learn it, Live it, Love it!
Prior to Obamacare, the U.S had the best healthcare system in the world even with its flaws. An estimated 14 million didn’t have healthcare, many of those were young adults who were healthy and didn’t see the need, others were illegal immigrants, and still others were very poor people who couldn’t afford any healthcare on account of pre-conditions or lack of funds.
Obamacare didn’t focus on the problems to fix like these and capless medical lawsuits that drove up the cost of healthcare. It smugly and arrogantly wanted to change the whole healthcare system without careful analyses and votes shoving it down our throats and forcing us to comply or pay high stiff penalties. Of course 5 new taxes were imbedded in its language as well! (The sneaky devils.) I say put a 6-month repeal deadline giving Congress time to restore and fix the old U.S. Healthcare System making it attractive, affordable, with pay as you go options. Only think likeable about Obamacare was coverage of dependents up to 26 years old.
Back in 2010 the Canadian Premier of Newfoundland left socialized medicine behind and slipped quietly into the U.S. (Mount Sinai Medical in Miami) for heart surgery. As he so delicately put it, “My heart, my choice, my health.” He should’ve added “My Life,” but you get the point.
For the Nomenklatura, only the best will do.
. . . By the way, the Hip Replacement capital of Canada is Cincinnati, Ohio.