A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform:
Protecting Human Life, Promoting Human Dignity, Pursuing the Common Good
A Resolution of the
Catholic Bishops of the United States
June 18, 1993
A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform: Protecting Human Life, Promoting Human Dignity, Pursuing the Common Good was developed and approved by the Domestic Social Policy Committee. It was approved by the Administrative Board in March 1993 and by the Catholic bishops of the United States at their General Meeting in June 1993. A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform: Protecting Human Life, Promoting Human Dignity, Pursuing the Common Good is authorized for publication as a statement of the United States Catholic Conference by the undersigned.
Monsignor Robert N. Lynch
General Secretary
NCCB/USCC
In 2001 the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference became the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
ISBN 1-55586-678-6
First Printing, November 1993
Fifth Printing, March 2003
Copyright © 1993 by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Our nation's health care system serves too few and costs too much. A major national debate on how to assure access for all, restrain costs, and increase quality is moving to the center of American public life. This resolution is addressed to the Catholic community and the leaders of our nation. We seek to outline the values, criteria, and priorities that are guiding our conference's participation in this vital dialogue. We hope to offer a constructive and distinctive contribution reflecting the Catholic community's strong convictions and broad experience in health care.
The debate and decisions will not be easy. They will touch every family and business, every community and parish. Health care reform represents an effort to redirect one-seventh of our national economy and to reshape our society's response to a basic human need. It is not only an economic challenge, it is a moral imperative.
The Catholic community has much at stake and much to contribute to this vital national dialogue. For decades, we have advocated sweeping reform. In communities across our land, we serve the sick and pick up the pieces of a failing system. We are pastors, teachers, and leaders of a community deeply committed to comprehensive health reform. Our urgency for reform reflects both on our traditional principles and everyday experience.
Our approach to health care is shaped by a simple but fundamental principle: "Every person has a right to adequate health care. This right flows from the sanctity of human life and the dignity that belongs to all human persons, who are made in the image of God." Health care is more than a commodity; it is a basic human right, an essential safeguard of human life and dignity. We believe our people's health care should not depend on where they work, how much their parents earn, or where they live. Our constant teaching that each human life must be protected and human dignity promoted leads us to insist that all people have a right to health care. This right is explicitly affirmed in Pacem in Terris and is the foundation of our advocacy for health care reform. When millions of Americans are without health coverage, when rising costs threaten the coverage of millions more, when infant mortality remains shockingly high, the right to health care is seriously undermined and our health care system is in need of fundamental reform.
Our call for health care reform is rooted in the biblical call to heal the sick and to serve "the least of these," the priorities of social justice, and the principle of the common good. The existing patterns of health care in the United States do not meet the minimal standard of social justice and the common good. The substantial inequity of our health care system can no longer be ignored or explained away. The principal defect is that more than 35 million persons do not have guaranteed access to basic health care. Others have some access, but their coverage is too limited or too costly to offer health security for their families. High health care costs contribute to a declining standard of living for
of Teaching many American families. The current health care system is so inequitable, and the disparities between rich and poor and those with access-and those without are so great that it is clearly unjust.
The burdens of this system are not shared equally. One out of three Hispanics and one of five African Americans are uninsured. The health care in our inner cities and some rural communities leads to Third World rates of infant mortality. The virtue of solidarity and our teaching on the option for the poor and the vulnerable require us to mea-sure our health system in terms of how it affects the weak and disadvantaged. In seeking the fundamental changes that are necessary, we focus especially on the impact of national health policies on the poor and the vulnerable.
The traditional value of stewardship also con-tributes to our call for reform. It is predicted that health care costs will more than double between 1980 and 2000. Our nation pays far more for health care than other industrialized countries and that strains the private economy and leaves too few resources for housing, education, and other economic and social needs. Stewardship demands that we address the duplication, waste, and other factors that make our system so expensive.
For three quarters of a century, the Catholic bishops of the United States have called for national action to assure decent health care for all Americans. We seek to bring a moral perspective in an intensely political debate; we offer an ethical framework in an arena dominated by powerful economic interests.
The Catholic community, in states, cities, and towns all across our country, brings not only strong convictions but also broad experience as providers and purchasers of health care. The Church has been involved in the delivery of health care services since the early days of this nation. Catholic health care facilities are now the largest network of non-profit hospitals and nursing homes in the United States, serving more than 20 million people in a single year. As pastors, we see the strains and stresses related to inadequate health care, the human consequences of a failing system. In approximately 600 Catholic hospitals and 1500 long-term and specialized-care settings, in our parishes and schools, in Catholic Charities shelters and ser-vices, in Campaign for Human Development funded groups, we see the consequences of failed and confused policy: families without insurance, the sick without options, children without care, the plight of real people behind the statistics. We seek to offer a human perspective in an often overly technical discussion.