wfn.org | Faith leaders urge nation to cover uninsured people

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 13, 2003	 News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202) 546-87227Washington
 10-21-71BP{138}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of Bishop Melvin Talbert is available.

By Joretta Purdue*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Leaders from several faiths have found common ground in
their support for the millions of people in the United States who lack health
insurance.

"We believe the 41 million Americans who lack health insurance have infinite
worth and must be the subject of our collective attention in this hour,"
reads a letter signed by nine religious leaders and issued March 11. The
nine, including a United Methodist, form the National Interfaith Advisory
Board for "Cover the Uninsured Week," March 10-16.

The week's activities have included issuing the letter, promoting a national
advertising campaign and holding events to encourage people to work together
in seeking cooperative solutions to the problem.

Events began with town hall meetings Monday, followed by campus and student
events Tuesday, more than 200 health fairs providing services on Wednesday,
business and labor groups highlighting the problem on Thursday, and
interfaith events Friday through Sunday. 

Driving the efforts are concerns for the people who suffer and die
prematurely because they are not insured. Forty-one million Americans were
uninsured for all of 2001, according to U.S. government data. That is the
last year for which statistics are available, said Stuart Schear, an
executive with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which provided $7 million
in funding for the effort. 

The National Council of Churches, which includes the United Methodist Church,
is one of more than 150 national organizations sponsoring "Cover the
Uninsured Week." Partners include the AARP, AFL-CIO, American Medical
Association, American Nurses Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
Healthcare Leadership Council, Families USA and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. 

Up to 75 million people were uninsured for more than two months during the
2001-2002 period, Schear added. "That makes it very common. That makes it one
out of three of all non-elderly Americans." Faith groups are among those
helping enroll children and adults who are eligible for public programs, he
said. About 5 million U.S. children are eligible but aren't enrolled, he
added.

Schear also said that, on average, 18,000 Americans die prematurely each year
because they are uninsured, according to an estimate from the Institute of
Medicine. An uninsured woman with breast cancer is 50 percent more likely to
die because the cancer is not detected until it is advanced, and likewise men
with colon cancer are diagnosed at a later, more deadly stage, he explained.
Members of ethnic minority groups are also less likely to be insured.

"By organizing and participating in faith-based events in cities and towns
across America, we want to raise awareness of the plight of uninsured
Americans," said Bishop Melvin Talbert, ecumenical officer of the United
Methodist Council of Bishops and a member of the National Interfaith Advisory
Board for "Cover the Uninsured Week." "We are focusing on holding reasoned,
nonpartisan discussions about the consequences of not having insurance."

The Rev. Jackson Day, an executive with the United Methodist Board of Church
and Society, urges church members to avail themselves of this opportunity to
advance the universal health care objectives of the denomination both during
and after the week.

"The United Methodist General Conference (the church's highest legislative
body) has passed resolution after resolution emphatically affirming the need
to achieve health care for all," he said in a message posted on his agency's
Web site. This effort is the primary health initiative of the board and
underlies all other health-related efforts, "including guarding against
erosions of benefits provided by the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and
against the erosion of quality and privacy in our health care delivery
system."

"Despite our differences in beliefs and practices, and our sometimes distinct
differences related to social issues, we are nonetheless united in our
concern for the state of health care in America," the advisory board members
stated in their letter.

"We recognize that access to health care is a basic right that we all share
as fellow human beings, on par with other human rights, such as the right to
food and shelter," they wrote. "No one in this great nation should have to
suffer because they are uninsured. And no one should pay with their life
because they cannot pay for health insurance."

The letter concludes, "May our generation secure health care as our moral
legacy to the nation."

Those who signed the "Open Letter to the American People" were Talbert, the
Rev. Eileen W. Lindner of the National Council of Churches; Bishop Cecil
Bishop of the Congress of Black Churches; Lt. Col Paul Bollwahn of the
Salvation Army; Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention; Garland Pohl
of the National Association of Diocesan Ecumenical Officers; Hannah Rosenthal
of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Sayyid M. Syeed of the Islamic
Society of North America; and Nancy Wisdo of the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
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*Purdue is United Methodist News Service's Washington news director.

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United Methodist News Service
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