wfn.org | [ENS] 'Cover the Uninsured Week' set to open with interfaith

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service
April 29, 2005 -- Friday Forum: Issues in the News

'Cover the Uninsured Week' set to open with interfaith initiatives

by Pat McCaughan

[ENS] -- Episcopalians in St. Louis will join in an interfaith rally on
Sunday, May 1, and a May 5 Hope and Health Summit in Detroit are among
1,200
activities planned this week to highlight the plight of the estimated 45
million Americans -- including 10 million children -- without
health-care
coverage of any kind.

These activities are part of the annual "Cover the Uninsured Week," May
1-8,
which creates a broad coalition of businesses, hospital and health care
agencies, philanthropic and faith groups to focus public awareness and
to
prompt legislative action to aid the uninsured. Further information and
online resources are posted at http://www.CoverTheUninsuredWeek.org.

"We are morally obligated to speak and act," says Dr. Eileen Lindner,
NCC
deputy general secretary and chair of the National Interfaith Advisory
Board
for Cover the Uninsured Week. "We are morally bound to advocate for our
uninsured neighbors, many of whom needlessly suffer because they don't
get
the medical care they need."

Former Presidents Gerald Ford -- himself an Episcopalian -- and Jimmy
Carter
are honorary co-chairs of the event, and Noah Wyle, star of the
top-rated
television drama "ER," is national spokesperson for the week.

"Tens of millions of Americans, most of them working, do not have health
coverage of any kind. Most of them put off going to the doctor when they
need to, just because they can't afford the care that the rest of us
take
for granted," Wyle said. "I've spent the last decade playing the role of
a
doctor on a program that depicts the plight of uninsured people who
arrive
in a Chicago emergency room, seeking medical care they can find nowhere
else. These stories have had a profound effect on me, and I am proud to
join
former Presidents Ford and Carter in this effort to let all Americans
know
that they can make a difference. Too many Americans are at risk for
finding
themselves uninsured, so Cover the Uninsured Week is for everyone, not
just
those who are currently uninsured."

Wyle cited a study for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) which
found
that Texas leads the nation in the percentage of uninsured adults, most
of
them employed. Minnesota claims the lowest percentage.

"There is an old image that people who are uninsured don't work or are
on
public assistance," said Stuart Schear of RWJF. "That's not really been
accurate and is completely inaccurate today." The study was based on
2003
data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other states with high percentages of uninsured are Louisiana, with 26.4
percent of all adults uninsured, including 22.6 percent of working
adults,
and New Mexico with 26 percent of all adults uninsured, including 22.6
percent of working adults.

Interfaith efforts are coordinated through the National Council of
Churches,
which is urging additional mosques, synagogues, churches and
congregations
to host interfaith forums, to offer special prayers and devote study
sessions to helping the people without insurance.

Garland Pohl, a member of the Interfaith Advisory Board and a Catholic,
called it a "compelling issue."

"Religious institutions and persons are called by their traditions and
Scriptures to care for other people," Pohl said. "This is an issue of
care
and concern about health and welfare which is part of that religious
mandate."

-- The Rev. Patricia McCaughan is senior correspondent for the Episcopal
News Service. She is also associate rector of St. Mary's Church in
Laguna
Beach, California.

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