Health Care Reform - A Moral Crisis Threatening America

 Policymakers and political candidates continue to make heath care reform a popular campaign issue.  What is missing in this debate is the moral crisis that we face in health care. Timing is critical to introduce Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act,   at the state and federal level, reform State Childrens Health Plan (SCHIP) and educate religious leaders on the need for Catholic health insurance. Private sector subsidy and state and federal mandates requiring health insurance plans to subsidize the culture of death are coming at us fast and furious.

Gloria Feldt, PPFA's President, stated in a major speech to the Commonwealth Club of California in October 1999 that "bringing justice to 'conscience' provisions for health care providers and facilities" is a major initiative for PPFA. She says, "In reality, the 'conscience exemption' is nothing more than interference, with a sugarcoated name, in your own personal medical decisions."

 So while we are seeking to expand the conscience, PPFA will be seeking to marginalize if not obliterate its free exercise. Women, particularly mothers and children, born and preborn, are under attack by the radical family planning proponents.  Through SCHIP (State Childrens Health Insurance Plans), most states are mandating abortion, sterilization in health insurance for children under the age of 19. The FEHBP (Federal Employee health Plan) and ten states also mandated contraception in health insurance plans. Parental authority is being undermined and Americans are being forced to subsidize services that are contrary to their religious and moral convictions.

 The most recent example of undermining parental authority was recently reported by the Sacramento Bee. Ranging in age from 11 to 19, girls are flocking one day a week to the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Roseville, Calif., for confidential pregnancy and STD screening, the Sacramento Bee reports. Kaiser Permanente is part of a larger national trend of private hospitals that are offering services to adolescent girls, ranging from just providing information

to offering tests or birth control. Specialists say the efforts are targeting a "vulnerable population" of at-risk teens "for whom obtaining preventive services has traditionally been difficult and sometimes intimidating." Dr. Nichole Zidenberg, head of the Roseville clinic, said, "We emphasize confidentiality. That's a really critical issue for these kids. Most of them are petrified

at the idea of talking to an adult, much less their parents, about these issues." She added, "This clinic allows us to identify [huge risk factors] early and deal with them right here... before they become a crisis." Under California law, teens have access to reproductive health services, including contraception and abortion, without parental consent.  (Hubert, Sacramento Bee, 2/10).

 Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act could be a very significant freedom legacy for Congress to provide the American people. Attaining appropriate conscience protection is imperative if we are to restore Christ centered health insurance in both the private and public sector.

 It is reasonable to suppose that insurance programs will soon be broadened to include subsidizing invitro-fertilization, artificial insemination, cloning, assisted suicide, euthanasia, withdrawal of nutrition and hydration, termination of life-support systems, organ tissue donation from aborted babies, and various forms of medical experimentation.

To counter this prodeath agenda, the Christus Medicus Foundation (CMF) was founded to reform cooperate and public policy though educating religious leaders, policy makers and the American public on the need for health insurance that allows all Americans a "conscientious choice" when selectinghealth insurance. 

The goals for CMF in the year 2000 are to provide education on the need to:

1. Remove contraception from MIChild (Michigan SCHIP) and remove abortion, sterilization and contraception from SCHIP in other states. To reform MIChild, CMF is working together with the MIChild Reform Committee, Catholic Campaign for America, Michigan Catholic Conference, RTL of Michigan, and other      prolife/profamily groups in Michigan. To reform SCHIP in other states, CMF is working with the NCCB, Family Research Council, and the Southern Baptists.
    
2. Introduce Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act  - Purpose of this Act is to protect as a basic civil right the right of all persons to refuse to counsel, advise, pay for, provide, perform, assist or participate in directly or indirectly providing or performing health services that violate such persons' religious or moral convictions: and to prohibit all forms of discrimination, disqualification, coercion, disability, or liability upon such persons by reason of such refusal.
    
3. Educate religious leaders on the critical need to establish Christ centered health insurance under the control of Catholic administration and plan design. The health insurance program established in Lincoln Nebraska is a great model for other dioceses.

 State by state SCHIP must reformed, a Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act must be passed into law and Christian Heath Insurance must be established. With 62 million Catholics and with 25% of health care controlled by Catholic hospitals, the dioceses of the U.S. could establish by far the most comprehensive health care network in the nation.  Such leverage could enable dioceses to negotiate the quality of care at the most economical prices in the market.  A Catholic administrator could control plan design, administration and claims processing so no manipulation in benefits would occur.

 Dioceses, willing to link employees under unified health insurance would be an ideal launching pad for this new initiative. This would immediately encourage corporations across the country to add a Christian option for their employees. The Catholic Church is a worldwide symbol for life.  Our Holy Father has clearly burnished that image over the past twenty years.  A successful model initiated in the U.S. by the National Catholic Conference of Bishops would motivate international dioceses.

 Michael J. O'Dea (2-15-00)

Christus Medicus Foundation

248-594-8664     Fax  248-594-8663

Email: mikeodea@ChristusMedicus.com

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