The Catholic Church has a great investment in health care reform in the United States. For Catholics, and many other people of faith, health care is a ministry that we do as a way of acting out our faith. Even though health care is big business, most people of faith and certainly the Catholic Church, do not primarily see health care as a commodity to be bought and sold for a profit, but a service of compassion offered to all. Catholic teaching insists that basic health care is a right and is essential to protect human life and dignity.

Health care reform is important to us because one out of every six hospital patients in the country is in a Catholic hospital. Catholic institutions include 624 hospitals, 499 long-term nursing care facilities, 164 home health agencies, 41 hospice organizations, 773 other health care facilities such as those that offer assisted living, adult day care and senior housing.

The American Hospital Association reported in its 2007 annual survey that Catholic hospitals provide nearly 17 million emergency room visits and nearly 93 million outpatient visits in one year. Catholic hospitals counted 5,542,314 admissions the same year, notes the Catholic Health Association.

Almost all of these institutions were founded by Religious Orders (mostly Sisters) who many years ago saw people in need and responded. They did it not for material gain, but for the fulfillment of their faith mission.

Locally, St. Francis Memorial Hospital, St. Mary’s Medical Center and Seton Medical Center in Daly City do a total of $10.8 million in charity care yearly.

“Charity care” means that portion of patient care services provided by a hospital for which a third-party payer is not responsible, and for which a patient has the inability to pay. Charity care does not include bad debt, contractual adjustments, or Medicaid/Medicare “shortfalls.”

These Catholic hospitals have been in the forefront of advocating for health care reform. They are solidly invested in providing quality care to all as a central part of their mission and a necessary part of their very reason for existence.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Archdiocese of San Francisco are calling for universal health coverage which protects the life and dignity of all, especially those who are poor and vulnerable. We believe that genuine healthcare reform which protects human life from conception to natural death is a moral imperative and urgent national priority.

There are many paths to achieve health care reform with valuable ideas from all parts of the political spectrum.

Based on Catholic Social Teaching, we believe that the general framework for genuine reform must include the following:

1. Include health care coverage for all people from conception until natural death, and continue the federal ban on funding for abortions;

2. Include access for all with a special concern for the poor;

3. Pursue the common good and preserve pluralism, including freedom of conscience;

4. Restrain costs and apply costs equitably among payers.

It is a scandal that 45 million Americans have no health care coverage or inadequate coverage and access in the richest nation in the history of the world. The people of the United States of America must do better.