Health Care Policy in Your Hands: Information and Study Guides for Faith Communities

The health care system has long been a topic of debate and with the presidential elections upcoming in 2008, we find ourselves in a time ripe with concern for reforming this system. Health care ranks top among domestic issues the public wants to hear presidential candidates address, acoording to a recent June public opinion poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. We can be sure that while our local communities and groups take on the health care debate, so will presidential candidates and those listening closely to what Americans are concerned about.

Historically, religious communities have been deeply involved in health care. Religious groups founded many of the hospital systems in the U.S and Texas. Congregations and local religious groups have been major providers of care for the poor, as well as providing insurance for their own employees.

Texas looms large in consideration of the U.S. health care system, because Texas is home to a disproportionate share of Americans who have insecure access to health care. If the health care system in the U.S. improved access to health care, Texas would disproportionately benefit.

There is generally broad agreement among politicians, academics, providers, and the public that the American health care system is in a state of instability or crisis that has existed for at least the past three decades and that is getting worse despite persistent government and private-sector attempts to stabilize it.

Most people agree that the U.S. system is in crisis because of the following factors:

1. As comparative international data show, Americans spend much more on health care overall than residents of other countries, but receive less health care per capita than residents of other countries.

2. Compared to other countries, especially considering our relative wealth as a nation, a large share of Americans have “insecure access” to health care services, meaning that either they can’t afford care or that there are few or no providers where they live.

3. Even Americans who have health insurance or can afford to pay for care are subject to systemic shortages and failures. For example, patients with insurance can be turned away at the emergency room because it is full of uninsured people seeking care for non-emergency problems. Many physicians complain that pressure to see more patients in the same amount of time coupled with increasing administrative paperwork makes it hard for them to treat each patient thoroughly.

The U.S. is the only nation in both the 24-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and NATO that does not provide some level of health insurance for all its citizens.