Catholics and Health Care Reform

With 624 Catholic hospitals in the country, the Catholic Church has become an important part of the health care reform debate.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) states on its website that “In our Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human right.” The Church maintains that this teaching is rooted in Scripture, and that it is unfortunate that many Americans are without health care.

For the most part, official statements from the USCCB have supported proposed reform, provided that abortion is not funded. This very fact, however, has come under fire and sparked some debate among those in the Church. The USCCB’s website says that the bishops do not wish “health care reform become a vehicle for advancing the pro-life cause, and they likewise believe it should not be used to advance the cause of abortion.”

While President Obama declared in his September 9, 2009 address to Congress that “Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions,” many pro-life organizations believe he is mistaken. The independent FactCheck.org confirmed that this may be the case, explaining that “under Democratic legislation now before Congress, the ‘public option’… could cover all abortions if the administration chooses , and as Obama once promised… Private insurance plans purchased with the help of federal subsidies to low- and moderate-income workers also could cover all abortions…the matter is not so simple or clear as the president would like it to seem.”

Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal O’Malley, wrote in his weekly blog, “I had the opportunity to speak briefly with President Obama … to share with him that the bishops of the Catholic Church are anxious to support a plan for universal health care, but we will not support a plan that will include a provision for abortion or could open the way for abortions in the future.”

In his newspaper column, Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, wrote “God, or the devil, is always in the details. The whole meaning of ‘health care’ would be subverted by any plan that involves mandated abortion access or abortion funding.”

Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, told the Catholic News Agency that, “Health care reform is a good thing … [but if] it leads to the destruction of life, then we say it’s no longer health care at all – it’s unhealthy care and we can’t be part of that.”

The Knights of Columbus adopted a resolution last month that opposed any health care plan that funded abortion, stating, “Congress is now considering health care legislation that would accomplish by stealth many of the aims of the so-called Freedom of Choice Act, including federal funding of abortions for the first time since adoption of the Hyde Amendment in 1976.”

The main debate on Capitol Hill, however, is how health care is to be provided – through a public option, nonprofit cooperatives, or solely private providers.

The USCCB has not issued a statement as to which combination of these options is preferable, admitting that “there may be different ways to accomplish [universal health care]”, but some Catholics have voiced their opinion on the issue.

Thomas Reese, S.J., a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University, writes in Newsweek “A government option, a single payer system or even socialized medicine are not bogeymen for Catholic social teaching. Rather the teaching is very pragmatic: How can we care for the millions who are not insured?”

On the other hand, Bishop of Sioux City, R. Walker Nickless, writes in his online column that “the Catholic Church does not teach that government should directly provide health care … any legislation that undermines the viability of the private sector is suspect.” He goes further, writing that “the Catholic Church does not teach that ‘health care’ as such, without distinction, is a natural right.”

Unless efforts are made to clarify or amend the bill with respect to abortion funding, many bishops will continue to be disappointed with the health care reform proposal. While the USCCB maintains that the Church is united in favor of health care, it is clear that a range of opinions exist among Catholics as to how enthusiastic the Church should be about the proposed legislation.

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