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2007-04-17 issue:

Affordable, quality health care for all

Leadership column

by Glen E. Miller

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Sixteen months ago, Mennonite Church USA’s Healthcare Access Program was a diagram of boxes and arrows. Since the last delegate assembly in July 2005, it has become names and faces, inquiries and reports spanning the country—from Virginia to Oregon and Ohio to Florida. More than 130 people have helped shape and implement the major components of the program outlined below and highlighted in bold letters.

Many of us know in a general way about the difficulties of access to health care for millions of our neighbors. About one in 10 congregations took part in an in-depth look at this issue through the Healing Healthcare Study Guide. Based on their study, 15 congregations responded with programs that are working to improve health-care access in their congregations and communities.

An estimated 70 to 100 Mennonite Church USA pastors and their families are among the 47 million Americans without health insurance. People from six insurance pools worked long hours to find a way to provide health-care access for church workers. The solution to this problem will require denomination-wide support and participation.

Encouragingly, the staffs of other Mennonite Church USA agencies have indicated an interest in forming a common insurance pool with pastors. Delegates should note that a recommendation for action that provides insurance for all pastors will be presented to the delegate assembly at San José 2007.

What we wish for our pastors, we wish for our neighbors. Government involvement will be necessary to provide basic health care for all. A project team for health-care public policy advocacy will bring statements to the San José delegate assembly outlining a basic theology of health care as well as five “talking points.” These can be used to evaluate proposals for changes in the health-care system and talk to our neighbors and legislators.

In these documents we state our belief that a biblically compatible health-care system will assure access to affordable, quality health care for all, without health and financial barriers. We also state: “We confess our own failure to act consistently upon these values. We commit ourselves, by God’s grace, to do so more faithfully.” We believe a starting point to act faithfully is the plan to provide insurance for pastors. It is inconsistent to advocate to government for care for all and ignore our pastors who lack the means to access because their church cannot afford insurance.

There are more than 70 health-care provider institutions affiliated with Mennonite Health Services Alliance. These agencies feel the pressure of increasing demands for services in the face of diminishing sources of finance. The institutional initiative of the health-care access program brought together congregations, conference leaders and institutional representatives to promote collaboration to better serve their constituencies.

Stewardship of health applies to individuals and local church communities. As we apply wellness principles individually, we improve quality of life and prospects for a longer life. In our congregations we can support each other to healthier living; from the kind of food we bring to potluck dinners to support for end-of-life decisions. Through the consideration of stewardship of health, some congregations are coming to grips with a redefinition that includes all of health: spiritual, physical, mental and emotional. MMA (Mennonite Mutual Aid) is leading this effort.

Congregational responses to the Healing Healthcare study include education in wellness, support for end-of-life decisions, volunteer work in clinics for the uninsured and many other applications. Among these volunteers are health professionals who are working in meaningful ways in local congregations, conferences and planning committees.

The full impact of the health-care access program will require several years to evaluate. I hope that in several years we will look back on the health-care access program as having made a difference in the lives of individuals, congregations and the denomination.

As people of compassion, Mennonites are responding in many ways to those who suffer from a lack of health-care access. Those who lack access to health care are among the most vulnerable in our society. Willard Swartley writes in Healing Healthcare, “When we consider Jesus’ teaching and the social, economic and political profile of the people he healed, we must conclude that exclusionary policies in health care are wrong.”

Glen E. Miller is program manager for Mennonite Church USA Healthcare Access.

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