Activists urge Clinton onward: health, housing, jobs have a ways to go - Panel Discussion

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 22, 1993 by Arthur Jones, Dorothy Vidulich

KANE: We should challenge CHD (the U.S. bishops' Campaign for Human Development) to fund some national coalition building.

PINKERTON: It becomes clear to me when trying to build constituencies for social change in this country, that people of faith have to come to grips with forming communities of conscience -- create the consciousness of people about the common good.

Health care reform

PINKERTON: Universal access to a comprehensive health care package for every person, employed or unemployed, is a step forward. Network applauds the establishment of an independent national commission to provide oversight. We appreciate that all employers will be responsible. At the present time, 82 percent of the uninsured are families with a full-time worker.

Caveats: Long-term care is going to be phased in. That is a mistake. And a better mental health care package is needed. We do not like the link between an employer-based system and health care. We'd prefer a single-payer system. Polls show 71 percent of Americans favor a single-payer system.

We think there's a good view of rural areas and support for the disenfranchised. We have serious concerns about the work-ability of proposed managed competition. The possibility of control by five or six large insurance companies is very real.

There is no cost control concept except on competition, no set rate for providers or pharmaceuticals. network is saying we'll work with the administration, but we're also saying we're not certain they can even finance the system they envision. If is difficult to see savings in such a bureaucratic maze.

HOEY: The question that comes to us is: Is it going to be two-tiered with the poor at the bottom? It is time for universal access, but those who need it will get it last. We take the position that the Clinton administration deserves a lot of credit for the way it has brought the issue to public awareness and brings the plan to this stage -- broad consultation. This speaks well for a different kind of political process.

We have noticed a growing sense of the common good, and Clinton seems to be calling us to that. That is offset by his constant assurances that government is not going to take over health care, but that it will continue to be the work of the private sector.

FIEDLER: One think I'm glad to see is that all reproductive services are included.

HUG: Health care has become a debate among the wealthy. Using World Bank 1990 figures, the U.S. population that pays for health care is 4 percent of the world population. We bought 41 percent of the world's health care. It represents a $2,800 per capita outlay in the United States. Twelve dollars per capita would satisfy all public health and essential clinical services in low-income countries; $22 per capita in all middle-income countries.

In the U.S. plan, the poor and most vulnerable bear the greatest burden. The undocumented are not included. Care based on citizenship means you lose the sense of a right to receive care because you are a human person.