catholic health system

Lobbying Congress today on the issue


San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez says any health care reform plan has to include coverage for illegal immigrants, 1200 WOAI news reports.


"It must include immigrants, especially legal immigrants, but all immigrants," Gomez told 1200 WOAI news today from Washington DC, where he and other Catholic bishops are meeting with Hispanic members of Congress about health care and immigration reform.


"We are concerned about the immigrants," Gomez said. "The immigrants are human persons too, and one way or another, they are going to need health care. It think it is important to recognize that, and be open to them participating one way or another in the health care system in this country."


Health care or subsidies to purchase health care for illegals has become one of the hottest issues embroiling the health care debate.


It was President Obama's claim that illegals will not receive health care that prompted Rep. Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) to yell his famous 'you lie!' to the President during a speech on health care to Congress.

Gomez and Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento said they met with Congress 'bringing the light of faith and the light of reason.'


"Any reasonable health care reform has to include the immigrant community, and has to provide, at a minimum, some sort of safety net for the undocumented," Soto said. "If we do not provide them access to quality health care, that will not only will affect their health care, but will also prejudice the health care of society in general. If this health care reform is not only to improve the health care of individuals but also improve the health care of society, it makes sense to include immigrants."


Gomez said he is also urging Congress to exclude coverage for abortion.


"This should be a universal plan, that everybody should be able to participate in the plan. That means also that we support a health care plan that includes the care of people from conception to natural death. I honor the statement of President Obama last week that federal funds are not going to be used for abortions, and also the protection of the conscience clause."

http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/news/sec tions/newsarticle.html?feed=119078&a rticle=6026350

I got suggestion for Jose G. Since most illegals in U.S. are of Catholic faith, let all illegals use Catholic hospitals & clinics, and have Catholic church foot all the bills. If he would not be happy with this arrangement, then let him keep his nose where it belongs, in his confessional, not sticking it in capitol hill. problem solved.

2009-09-17 17:55:03 by ❶•☆•xXx•☆— BOMB ♥ SHELL☆•xXx•☆•❶

Hear how direct integration of laboratory results into affiliated physicians EHRs doubled Catholic Health Systems inpatient lab volume within the ...

Since Mexico and the Central American countries are largely Catholic, they mostly do not use condoms. From statistics I've seen on the internet for these countries, I gather that they have a rapidly increasing rate of sexually transmitted disease such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. Don't you think their citizens with these diseases will come, more than ever, to the USA because of the superior and free treatment they can get for their diseases, compared with what they can get at home? Just another motivation for them to come and those who have these illnesses won't even try to apply under any new rules the government may make to help the illegal immigrants get legal status, because they know they won't be able to pass the medical qualifications. Comments?
Knitmama: You are wrong and reading into my comment things that I did not say. You are one of those who are seeking to call anyone against illegal immigrants racist. You are a "reverse racist."

Absolutely! They don't get checked for diseases before they slither into the USA and they bring in Tuberculosis, meningitis, HIV/AIDS, and lord knows what else. They have litters of bambinos so they can get more welfare. They have already caused the closing of hundreds of hospitals because they wouldn't pay their bills and when all those filthy diseases start spreading there won't be hospitals enough to care for the people who need the medical care. YEAH, I'd say they pose an exponentially increasing burden on the US health care system (and all other 'systems')

Health professionals have written the following to explain how their hands were tied when forced to treat illegals for minor medical problems in hospital ER's and the impact it made on the hospitals:
http://jpands.org/vol10no1/cosman.pdf#se ...

2006-05-01 00:05:24 by Daisy

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The submission of this assignment must appraise the role and influence of religion to the current situation of abortion.
I have chosen an article from oct 08 that explains the bill reform. Here is the article;

12 October, 2008
Catholic opposition to the Victorian Government’s Abortion Law Reform Bill intensified Australia-wide this week as the controversial legislation moved towards a vote in the Victorian parliament – a clear confrontation between a State government and the Church.

In response to a Day of Prayer, to defeat the bill, called by the Archbishop of Melbourne, Archbishop Denis Hart, thousands of pro-life supporters packed Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral last Sunday, with the legislation, having been passed in the Victorian legislative assembly, due to be debated in the upper house

Archbishop Hart, in a rare presentation to the Australian media, vowed to defy the new law if it came into being: Catholic health care workers would not comply with the so-called reforms.

Catholic Health Australia’s chief executive, Martin Laverty, declared the bill would deprive Catholic health services of the ability to act in accordance with conscience.

The new laws tabled would give women open access to abortion up to 24 weeks into pregnancy.

And women in the later stages of pregnancy could also qualify, at a doctor’s discretion.

“If it passes, we will be put in an untenable position,” Mr Laverty said.

“The Bill provides a mechanism to remove our right to be different from others...our right to keep providing the Catholic maternity services we’ve offered Victoria since its beginnings. It may be taken away,” he said.

“The bill may breach Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights. It relies on a component in the Charter that exempts its application to abortion law. Legal opinion says the drafters were wrong to do so.

Legal opinion offered to Catholic Health Australia affirms the Bill breaches the Charter.”

“With the Bill mandating some health practitioners to act in contradiction of their conscience, staff in Catholic hospitals may face discrimination at law.

Under the legislation doctors with a conscientious objection to abortion would be required to refer a woman to doctor who didn’t. They would also be obliged to perform abortions in an emergency if necessary to protect the woman’s life.

Archbishop Hart said “I would say we can’t perform and we can’t refer ... we have nowhere to go.

“That is a firm, irrevocable position and I believe it is the only position that people of conscience can hold,” the archbishop said.

At one stage in the Day of Prayer vigil thousands from the congregation and others, singing hymns and praying, converged on the steps of the Victorian Parliament where spontaneous speeches were made.

The demonstration closed Melbourne’s Spring St for more than an hour

Faiths represented during the Day of prayer included Melbourne’s Anglican archdiocese, the Uniting Church, Presbyterian Church and Lutheran Church.

Archbishop Hart told the congregation “We are here as brothers and sisters ... we testify to the unique value of each human without distinction from conception to natural death.”

Catholic Health Australia represents the 15 Catholic hospitals that operate in Victoria, some of which have done so for more than a century.

Martin Laverty pointed out that over that time those hospitals had always worked in partnership with Victorian government and the Victorian community.

“They are centres of excellence in cancer, cardiovascular, trauma and, of course, also in the maternity care they provide,” he said.

“Our opposition to abortion is clearly known. Our hospitals are an integral part of Victoria’s health system, handling up to one third of births across the state, each year.”

“Catholic health providers contribute significantly to the State’s health system. In turn the system has respected our principles as Catholic providers.

“Given the massive scale of Catholic services in the wider health system, why should this change now?”

Dr Brigid McKenna, policy officer for the Sydney archdiocese’s Life, Marriage and Family Centre, has described the bill as “a terrible anti-life bill” which “would be likely to increase the rate of abortion”’

She added: “If passed, Victorian law will abandon vulnerable unborn human beings and their mothers.

“The law will also fail health care professionals by omitting a no-disadvantage conscientious objection clause for doctors, and compelling nurses to assist in a late term abortion against their conscience.

“Abortion is not ‘an ordinary medical procedure’. It is never therapeutic or healing or caring. Abortion only ever ends a human life and wounds human hearts.

“We should legislate for life, not death.”

The bill to give Victoria the most liberal abortion regime of any state has been supported by the Lower House (47-35 votes), with Premier John Brumby confident

Please do your own homework! You need to use your brain, not ours!

2009-10-21 16:24:08 by j

Price: $29.95 $26.95

Public Schools haven't put the Catholic School system out of business. Public Police haven't put Private Detectives out of business. And even these are bad examples because I believe Private Insurance companies would blow the government plans out of the water in good economies, but the government plan would be a stable option in bad economies, like this one.

It's a matter of cost. The Government will treat their program like they do Medicare/Medicaid/MediCal...they'll either pay for a portion of the hospitals cost or won't pay at all.

Hospitals have to recoup that cost from somewhere -- they hike up the rest of their prices and have private insurance cover those holes...only to be a realized increase in private insurance premiums.

It's only a matter of time before private insurance holders stop swimming against the current and take it for "free" -- since they're already paying for it w/ their taxes.

And now the second problem:
Government still undercuts hospitals leaving no hospitals an out to re-coupe their costs...uh-oh, CRISIS CRISIS CRISIS...Government to the rescue w/ a Universal Health Care plan and puts taxpayers on the hook any time the Health Care industry comes to that cross road:
1. Raise Taxes
2. Reduce User Benefits

And we'll be stuck w/ an expensive and inefficient system like Canada and the UK are trying to deal with.

Here's a novel idea:
The system isn't broken. A system is never intended to operate properly if people don't respect it.

When people don't pay their bills or sue for malpractice -- the system wasn't designed to absorb those added costs.

Example:
You wouldn't get pissed at GM for deciding to put sugar-water in your gas tank because you can't afford gas and end up w/ a non-functioning automobile. The system was designed for gasoline.

The Health Care system was designed to provide a service -- if people take that service w/o then compensating them (also known as theft), the system will have problems.

The Financial Sector:
When you buy a house and can't make the payments -- the system doesn't operate as it's supposed to.

Capitalism didn't fail -- the unethical people disrupting the system failed...that goes from Government, to the private sector big wigs, right down to the consumer who thought he would get away with it...

2009-06-08 11:12:34 by Prospero Reincarnate

"Unprecedented Initiative Asks Catholics
"Who Is Under Your Carbon Footprint?"

WASHINGTON, DC.(April 21, 2009)--As the nation marks Earth Day, the Catholic community is launching an unprecedented initiative, the Catholic Climate Covenant, to bring together in new ways religious obligations to care for creation and care for "the least of these" as a distinctive Catholic contribution to the climate change debate.

Leading national Catholic organizations are calling on Catholic individuals and families, parishes and schools, religious communities, colleges and hospitals and other Catholic organizations to take a unique St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor.

Organizational partners and sponsors of the Covenant Campaign reach into every corner of Catholic life here and abroad, including:

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Catholic Charities USA serving nearly eight million people in more than 1,700 local Catholic Charities agencies and institutions

The Catholic Health Association of the United States serving one in six Americans in hospitals

Catholic Relief Services reaching more than 80 million people in more than 100 nations

The National Catholic Education Association, the largest private education system in the world

The Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious representing hundreds of religious communities who lead with a sense of mission and real world examples of how to care for people in poverty and for God's gift of creation.

Participants also include: the Franciscan Action Network, the National Council of Catholic Women, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, the National Federation of Priests Councils, the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, and many others.

The effort responds to and builds upon the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, the U.S. Catholic Bishops, and many Catholic religious communities who believe that our response to climate change must be guided by the exercise of prudence, the pursuit of the common good and a priority for the poor.

Pope Benedict most recently referenced "troubling climate change" in his Easter message to the world. Before Easter, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change sent resource packets (in English and Spanish), including the St. Francis Pledge, to all of the 17,000 Catholic parishes and 6,300 Catholic elementary schools in the nation. The Campaign and Pledge are also being promoted by a wide range of other Catholic organizations to reach deeply into every part of Catholic life.

Pressing the issue of responsibility for the impacts of climate change, the Campaign asks the haunting and provocative question "Who is Under Your Carbon Footprint?" in mailings to every parish in the nation, posters, and print ads in Catholic publications, and in major newspapers across the country.

A new website (www.catholicclimatecovenant.org), offers concrete help in carrying out the St Francis Pledge.

"The St. Francis Pledge is at the heart of this effort," says Dan Misleh, Executive Director of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change. "By linking prayer, reflection and learning to assessment, action and advocacy, many more Catholics will become aware of the moral implications of climate change, make the connections between their own carbon footprint and their obligation to the poor and take private and public action to address the causes and consequences of climate change."

The whole world is insane it seems.

2009-06-29 17:24:34 by Lorenzo