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The
Catholic Democrat view
On Family & Health
To
speak of mission is to speak of vocation: the response to a transcendent
call which takes shape in the suffering and appealing countenance
of the patient in his care. To care lovingly for a sick person is
to fulfill a divine mission, which alone can motivate and sustain
the most disinterested, available and faithful commitment, and gives
it a priestly value. When he presents the heart of his redemptive
mission, Jesus says: 'I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly' (John 10:10)
—Charter for Health Care Workers, Pontifical Council for
Pastoral Assistance, 2/11/94
You are
aware of the close relationship, the analogy, the interaction between
the mission of the priest on the one hand and that of the health care
worker on the other: all are devoted, in different ways, to the salvation
of the person, and care for his health, to free him from illness,
suffering and death, to promote in him life well-being and happiness.
—Pope John Paul II, address to Catholic doctors, 12/28/78
Facts regarding Bush policy on family and health:
-
Half of the U.S. appropriation to date for development in Iraq
could pay to treat every HIV-infected person in Africa for a year—1/20th
of the entire cost so far.
-
The Bush Administration launched an initiative to provide $15
billion over five years to deal with HIV disease in the developing
world (PEPFAR initiative). PEPFAR had initially refused to pay
for generic medications that are not FDA-approved, which meant
severely limited therapeutic choices for African AIDS patients
and initially no approved regimens for children. The 2007 announcement
of expanded funding (to $30 billion over the next five years)
may represent a significant increase in coverage for both children
and adults with HIV, the infection rate for which continues to
increase across Sub-Saharan Africa.
- A
new Medicare drug benefit: Aside from the deceit
over the projected total cost of the program (initially estimated
at $400 billion over ten years, and then revealed to be closer
to $530 billion after its passage), the legislation puts significant
new pressure on retirees to enroll in HMO care. The complexity
of new drug discount cards that went into effect in May 2004 has
left many people without the benefit by virtue of difficulty involved
in using it.
-
The Medicare drug benefit forbids government contracting
with pharmaceutical companies to negotiate volume discounts for
senior citizens, dramatically increasing the cost of the legislation
to the benefit of these companies.
- The
number of Americans without health insurance
climbed nearly 10% under Mr. Bush, partly as a result of job losses.
- Healthcare
costs dramatically outpaced inflation despite pressures
to enroll more people in supposedly cost-cutting capitated plans.
-
The Bush Administration's proposed biomedical research
budget for 2006 for the first time in more than a decade failed
to keep up with the rate of inflation, paling in comparison to
the growth in discretionary military spending and leading scientists
once again to talk about leaving academia in large numbers as
they did in the 1980s.
Moral
scorecard:
- The
Bush Administration has begun to address the AIDS cataclysm in
Africa, and has now proposed an additional $30 billion over five
years to expand anti-retroviral treatment in developing countries.
This is still a tiny fraction of the US investment in the Iraq
War effort, but certainly the most laudable humanitarian initiative
under this Administration. “Do not lay up for yourselves
an earthly treasure. Moths and rust corrode; thieves break in
and steal. Make it your practice instead to store up heavenly
treasure, which neither moths or nor rust corrode nor thieves
break in and steal. Remember where your treasure is, there is
your heart also.” Matthew 6:19-22.
- The
continued loss of health insurance to vast swaths of American
citizens, including children, strikes right at the heart of the
Christian mission to care for others. As the only Western nation
without universal health care, despite spending far more per capita
than any other country, we have a moral obligation to alleviate
this pervasive suffering as Jesus relieved suffering. “I
was ill and in prison and you did not come to comfort me.’
Then they in turn will ask, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry
or thirsty or away from home or naked or ill or in prison and
not attend you in your needs?’ He will answer them: ‘I
assure you, as often as you neglected to do it to one of these
least ones, you neglected to do it to me.’” Matthew
25:43-46
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