[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 92 (Friday, July 15, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 15, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           HEALTH CARE REFORM

                                 ______


                       HON. THOMAS J. BARLOW III

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 14, 1994

  Mr. BARLOW. Mr. Speaker, I recently received a letter from Nancy Jo 
Kemper, the executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches. Her 
letter dealt with the issue of health care reform and the need to 
provide all Americans with access to primary health care services.
  I want to share this letter with all my colleagues in the House. Ms. 
Kemper was also kind enough to include a copy of ``Pastoral Appeal: 
Health Care Coverage for All Americans.'' This message, endorsed by the 
leaders of religious groups around the country, makes it clear that 
health care is a moral, not a political issue. I am including this 
message in the Record for my colleagues as well.


                                 Kentucky Council of Churches,

                                     Lexington, KY, July 11, 1994.
     Hon. Tom Barlow,
     Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC.
       Dear Representative Barlow: Health care reform with 
     universal coverage for ALL Americans is a moral and economic 
     necessity. The Kentucky Council of Churches, representing 11 
     major Christian denominations, some 2700 congregations, and 
     over 800,000 members of these churches across the 
     Commonwealth, has long been committed to significant health 
     care reform in our state and in our nation. I urge you, in 
     the coming floor discussions, to do your utmost to expand 
     primary health care coverage to all Americans, as speedily as 
     possible.
       I am enclosing a ``Pastoral Appeal: Health Care Coverage 
     for All Americans'' which has been signed by national 
     religious leaders. I also endorse this pastoral appeal, both 
     personally, and on behalf of the Kentucky Council of Churches 
     and its member congregations.
       May the spirit of wisdom and compassion guide you in your 
     deliberations in Congress on this vital matter for the well-
     being of our society.
           Sincerely,
                                                  Nancy Jo Kemper,
                                               Executive Director.
                                  ____


       A Pastoral Appeal: Health Care Coverage for All Americans

       Now is the time for religious voices, long committed to 
     establishing hospitals and providing care, to be heard in 
     support of health care for all Americans.
       Decisions touching every life are being made in these very 
     days. By adding its voice of moral conviction and guidance to 
     the public process, the religious community can, in concert 
     with others, make the difference. The doors to health care 
     resources for all people can be opened. It can happen now!
       The issue of universal coverage is neither a partisan nor a 
     political matter. It is a moral mandate. Anything short of 
     health care for all is morally flawed. Religious commitment 
     to the dignity and value of every human life insists on it. 
     Our nation's history of failing to provide such care needs to 
     be repudiated as a moral deficit that has stood too long.
       The provision of health care for all will embrace 
     particularly the lives of those about whom we as religious 
     communities have so long cared--the poor and those often 
     ignored, the burdened and those thought to be unworthy, the 
     modest middle-income folk so often found among the people of 
     religious loyalty and quiet faithfulness.
       So often those who have significant assets or access to 
     private resources have little understanding of what the 
     threat of the loss of health care means. For working people 
     with hourly wages or limited salaries, the possibilities of 
     faltering health or losing coverage is an abiding fear. For 
     those in poverty for whom managing each day is a demanding 
     battle, the absence of adequate health care is a pending 
     defeat of life itself. Without universal health care 
     coverage, these are the very ones who will fall away, often 
     unnoticed. Therein lies the moral issue: Whether we are 
     willing to provide for all people as children of God.
       Therefore our support for universal coverage is morally 
     grounded. Important issues still being debated can, we 
     believe, best be resolved in a setting of commitment to and 
     the enactment of universal coverage. To those participants in 
     decision-making who are undecided or opposed, we implore a 
     new attention to the moral meaning of universal coverage.