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Website
CONNECTICUT BLOGS -
CURRENT
INFORMATION ON
POLITICS IN CONNECTICUT
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HEALTH CARE REFORM
Catholic social teaching holds health care to be a basic human right. This is reflected in the long history of the Catholic Church’s involvement in providing health care services within our own state and throughout the world. The Catholic Church has long been been an active participant in the call for health care reform in our state and nationally. Health care reform must exclude any funding changes in state or federal law that will increase fundng for abortions.
FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY
HEALTH CARE REFORM IS ABOUT SAVING LIVES NOT
DESTROYING THEM.
Abortion is not health care because killing is not healing. For over 30 years, the Hyde Amendment and other
longstanding and widely supported laws have prevented federal funding of elective abortions. Yet health care
reform bills advancing in Congress violate this policy. Americans would be forced to subsidize abortions
through their taxes and health insurance premiums. We need genuine health care reform—reform that helps
save lives, not destroy them.
Update 2/11/2010 - Presently, House and Senate Democratic leadership, along with the White House, are reviewing their options for continuing in their efforts to achieve health care reform. The election of Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts has derailed the process.
December 2nd - Connecticut U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro Stands with Pro-Abortion
Advocates Who Call Abortion A "God-Given Right" and Attacks U.S. Catholic Bishops
Read the news report on the rally here.
Read the facts on the Stupek Amendment by clicking here.
November 7, 2009 - Health Care Legislation Passes U.S. House with Inclusion of Abortion Ban
Unfortunately, none of Connecticut's U.S. Representatives (Rosa Delauro, Christopher Murphy, Jim Himes, John Larson, Joe Courtney) voted for the Stupak amendment to limit federal funding of abortions in the health care reform bill that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday. Representative DeLauro actually spoke strongly against the amendment on the House floor. This is consistent with their historically pro-abortion positions.
This article from the Catholic News Service provides a good overview of the role the abortion issue played in the final House passage of the bill.
STATE LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY
2009 - Sustinet Plan Legislation Enacted: H.B. 6600 concerns the establishment of the Sustinet Universal health care insurance plan. The bill was voted out of the House and Senate along party lines. The bill was vetoed by Governor on July 8th, but overriden by the General Assembly. Several boards and committees will now be established to develop final legislation for the 2011 session of the General Assembly. The Connecticut Catholic Conference will monitor the development of this legislation.
The Connecticut Catholic Conference testified in favor
of comprehesive health care reform, House Bill 6600. The bill
calls for the implementation of a comprehensive health
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The Connecticut Catholic Conference is a member of the Interfaith Fellowship for Universal Health Care.
What we're doing
 All faith traditions have a deep moral commitment to healing and to human beings taking care of each other. In that spirit, each faith community ministers to the sick. Hundreds of the state's faith leaders have joined together to call for a health care system that reflects the core values of our faith. Our belief is that our society must strive for a health care system that values healthy lives first and does not discriminate in its treatment of individuals.
The Interfaith Fellowship for Universal Health Care was formed out of the belief that health care is a human and divine right. Together, we have signed a statement proclaiming our support for
- A health care system that leaves no one out.
- Health care that is affordable for everyone, especially the poor.
- Health care that sustains our society.
- Health care that enhances people’s lives by enabling them to live with dignity and to reach their full potential.
Catholic Social Teaching and Health Care
In our Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human right. Access
to health care should not depend on where a person works, how
much a family earns, or where a person lives. Instead, every person,
created in the image and likeness of God, has a right to life and to
those things necessary to sustain life, including affordable, quality
health care. This teaching is rooted in the biblical call to heal the sick
and to serve "the least of these," our concern for human life and
dignity, and the principle of the common good. Unfortunately, tens of
millions of Americans do not have health insurance. According to the
Catholic bishops of the United States, the current health care system
is in need of fundamental reform. To learn about Catholic teaching
on health care in more detail, read the full statement by the United
States Catholic Bishops, A Framework for Comprehensive Health
Care Reform, at www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/comphealth.shtml.
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