Father Michael Seifert lives and works in Cameron Park, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. Although Texas is one of the wealthiest economic regions in the world, Cameron Park is the poorest community of its size in the United States. The per capita income is just over $4,000, less than that of Guatemala. “The heartbreaking thing is most of those forced to suffer the stingy misery of Texas poverty are children,” Seifert says. “Healthcare is so abysmal here that my community has become of exotic interest to scholars.” He continues: “We pray, always, and fiercely, that we don’t sicken, that the shadow of an accident does not cross our homes. We simply cannot afford to be sick.”
In the United States, 47 million of our family members, friends and neighbors lack health insurance. More than 65 percent of us – that is, more than 30 million people – live on a household income below 200 percent of the poverty line. Healthcare is a human right, but healthcare costs limit our access to care. Without health insurance, we face financial hardship from even a common illness or injury. Health insurance often does not cover routine procedures, medications, mental health services, alternative healing or necessities such as dental care or prescription glasses.
Even those families among us who do have health insurance do not feel secure. A pre-existing condition that is not covered, a high policy deductible or a copayment for a significant medical problem can result in financial strain or ruin.
Lack of affordable healthcare and/or affordable insurance, in the end, affects every citizen because the higher costs of last-minute and emergency care are passed on through higher taxes and increased government outlays for stopgap medical care.
Our nation must ensure access to affordable, quality healthcare for all. We must enact price controls on healthcare and medicine. We must provide healthcare education. We must promote healthy living and good nutrition. We must ensure that mental health services are available to all and that the needs of people with disabilities are met. We must improve public programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, by making them easy to access, simple to apply for, and delay-free. We must eliminate barriers to care such as lack of transportation, lack of services in rural areas and on Indian reservations, and lack of language and cultural proficiency between caregivers and care receivers.
When community hospitals seek to expand or rebuild, we urge that local governments build community health benefits into contracts involving tax credits or other public incentives. Our local hospitals can, for example, provide free or reduced-cost medical care, transportation services and improved translation and interpreter services.
Our healthcare system should be accessible. Outreach should be emphasized and provided in multiple languages and enrollment procedures streamlined.
A few states have passed major healthcare reform. We urge state governments to identify reforms that might work in their own states and to enact those rather than wait for federal reform.
States must increase the number of low-wealth children, adults and immigrants who have healthcare insurance by expanding Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and by making application/enrollment for the programs easier.
We urge states to limit insurance premium increases and to stop insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
We urge states to strengthen requirements and incentives so that hospitals provide more free and discounted care to low-wealth communities.
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) does not cover all of our uninsured children: Only about 4.5 million of our children qualify, and funding runs out in March 2009. President Bush vetoed a proposal passed by Congress that would have funded healthcare coverage for an additional 3.9 million children. We urge the Obama Administration to re-appropriate and expand SCHIP.
We seek a federally funded universal healthcare program that provides every one of us access to affordable, quality healthcare, including regular well-person checkups. We urge outreach to people in rural areas and on Indian reservations, as well as in inner cities. We expect that any new system would protect, strengthen and expand the services already available to our low-wealth families through state Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and to our elderly and disabled through Medicare.