Pastor Charles A. Warner
As clergy involved in the group Sacramento Area Congregations Together, we’ve worked long and hard over the past year to ensure that federal health insurance reform legislation translates into more affordable coverage for the hardworking Americans to whom we minister.
We’ve traveled to Washington, D.C., on several occasions to participate in large-scale lobbying days with other people of faith in the PICO National Network, an alliance of 1,000 congregations nationwide.
We have met with our representatives, both on Capitol Hill and here in Sacramento, to push the issue of affordability for working families. We have helped organize prayer vigils, press conferences and even a nationwide conference call with President Barack Obama.
Throughout, we’ve had an opportunity to see up close the messy process of creating a single piece of legislation that can pass through a body composed of 535 legislators, each with his or her own unique interests at stake.
After all of this, we can say without a doubt that the health reform bill that is so close to passage in Congress, while not perfect, stands clearly on the side of hardworking Americans. And that failure to pass this bill will be a serious blow to tens of millions of families and small businesses, who will continue to see their health care bills rise, as well as to the nation’s economic future.
Every day that goes by, more and more families and small businesses in our communities lose the ability to afford health coverage and thousands continue to suffer and die unnecessarily.
The bill before Congress would guarantee coverage that families can count on, coverage that can’t be taken away. The bill would rein in insurance companies that amass huge profits by denying Americans access to the care they need. It would not only ban insurance companies from denying people care due to pre-existing conditions, it would also prevent them from the egregious practice of raising premiums if they fall ill.
The bill would help small businesses by offering subsidies to provide health care for their employees, thereby freeing up money to allow owners to invest more in their businesses and create new jobs.
In short, the bill before Congress would place government on the side of the American people, and put an end to the days when insurance companies make all the rules and take too many of our hard-earned dollars.
While many people are understandably frustrated with how long and complicated the process of passing reform has been, they recognize that action is still urgently needed. What is now needed is faith that our government can and should rein in profit-driven insurance companies that put the bottom line ahead of the health and wellness of individuals.
In just the past year, our government has provided 4 million more children with health care, invested in and expanded the care and services provided by rural community health centers, and guaranteed that families who suffer the loss of a job and thus health insurance would maintain affordable COBRA coverage.
That’s the kind of government that works for and delivers to its people. And that’s what we can expect if health reform passes.
What we need now is the moral leadership that can cut through the politics, call out the narrow self-interests of those who wish to kill reform, help the American people understand clearly what reform will do for them, and ensure that we do not let politics get in the way of protecting what’s in the best interests of our country as a whole.
