Peter Novecosky, OSB

Health debate in the US

The debate about expanded coverage of US health insurance continues to divide US bishops and American Catholic health care providers.
This was evident in statements made at mid-June meetings by highly respected spokespersons on either side.

The Catholic Health Association held its annual assembly June 13 - 15 in Denver. It brought together 800 health care professionals from around the country.

Keynote speaker on the opening day, Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, told the assembly that the differences among US Catholics in the health care reform debate was not about the objectives to be accomplished but about the “degree of assurance” provided by the bill on those objectives.
Hehir is secretary for health and social services for the Archdiocese of Boston. He also serves as a professor in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, is former president and chief executive of Catholic Charities USA and is a former official of the US bishops' conference.

He said the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March “has the proportions and the potential” of such legislative landmarks as the Social Security Act of the 1930s, the civil rights reforms of the 1960s and welfare reform in the 1990s.

The Catholic Health Association and the heads of many Catholic religious orders threw their support behind President Barack Obama’s legislation, which greatly extended health care insurance for 32 million Americans.

Obama, for his part, issued an executive order promising no federal funding of abortion. The CHA said they were convinced the bill would not expand federal funding of abortion. Leaders of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, however, opposed the final version of the legislation, saying the executive order did not adequately guarantee conscience rights or guard against expanded federal abortion funding.

Meanwhile, the US bishops met in St. Petersburg, Fla., for their June 14 - 18 spring assembly. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the US bishops, reiterated the bishops’ insistance on the inadequacy of the bill. In an interview with NCR reporter John Allen, Jr., George said the dispute with the CHA involves a core principle of ecclesiology. It’s an issue about who speaks for the church, he said, in matters of faith and morals. “The bishops have to protect their role in governing the church,” he said.

Complicating the issue is the political overtones the debate has taken and the polarization it has caused. Democrats and Republicans alike have made the issue part of their political agenda.

Canada and some European countries have taken a different tack on the issue. While the church is opposed to abortion in these countries and looks for conscience protection for health care providers, church leaders have managed to avoid the polarization and politics that have consumed the US scene.

A good sign is that both sides in the US debate want to move on to a rapprochement and build a better law in the future.

"Nobody is enjoying the gap, by a long shot," Sister Carol Keehan, CHA president, told Allen. "We've had a very strong and collaborative relationship (with the bishops), and that's what we want to see in the future." George said he's written to Keehan and is optimistic about the prospects to "reshape the relationship in dialogue together."

Perhaps a look at how other countries are trying to bring justice in an imperfect world can be part of the dialogue as well.