The Affordable Healthcare for America Act took a big step forward in the US Congress. This appears a "watershed moment" in American history, in that final passage now seems very likely, after further revision.
Gandhi said "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." He did not say that animals are more important than humans, but only that animal care is a revealing index of national greatness.
While it is hard to fault that statement, surely an even more potent index of a nation's greatness is how well it cares for the health of its human citizenry. Greatness requires goodness, and goodness is not compatible with leaving meany of the nation's sick without adequate care.
The passage of this legislation would save the lives of many and improve the lives of many others. Those who voted for the bill performed an act of moral courage. Its enactment into law would be an act of courage, wisdom, and justice on America's part. The bill embodies the teaching of our Lord in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Without this or similar legislation, we have a system under which the nation, in effect, sees its ailing fellow-citizen lying injured and half-dead by the roadside, yet does not offer help, but "passes by on the other side."
Ironically many of those who opposed the bill helped assure its passage by amending it to further restrict abortion, while many who opposed such restrictions voted to enact them into law, by voting in favor of the bill. The devil often works by dividing; on this feast of St. Michael and the Bodiless Powers, those good angels must have been inspiring many to work together for the cause of goodness.
The act includes provisions to encourage better national health and eating habits and better preventative medicine. If Americans practiced these things, it's likely that the annual national health bill would be drastically reduced, perhaps halved. Reducing alcoholism, smoking, food-related diseases like obesity, diabetes, and often cancer, cutting meat consumption by 50%, eating more fruits and vegetables and adopting an exercise routine could have that result.
(also posted in the Facebook group Progressive Orthodox Christianity)
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Fr. Juvenaly, I agree with your premise, but am not so sure about the method chosen by Congress to accomplish the worthy goal of healthcare for all Americans.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone really knows what's in the 2000 page House version and the (almost) 3000 Senate version? Surely most of the people who actually voted on it don't.
Why can't they simply legislate the following:
1. Insurers can't deny coverage for existing illnesses
2. There is no lifetime maximum
3. You can't be dropped due to how much you've used your insurance (unless the claims were fraudulent of course)
4. Insurance companies can sell their products across state borders.
5. Limit punitive damages to $250,000 and limit lawyer fees to 10% of the reward.
6. Extend Medicaid to 55 and older OR set up a catastrophic insurance fund administered by Medicaid.
7. Set up group insurance co-ops for small businesses and individuals.
Fr Nilus, Thank you for your comment. I just saw it today. I think a big issue is the fact that it really messes up the system that healthy people choose not to buy insurance. That means there isn't enough money to pay for everyone's healthcare. I'm going to address that a bit more in a new post.
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