IMAGE: CNS photo/Aaron P. Bernstein, Reuters
By
WASHINGTON (CNS) — After
the Senate Republicans failed to get enough votes to pass a “skinny”
repeal to remove parts of the Affordable Care Act in the early hours of July
28, a U.S. bishop said the “task of reforming the health care system still
remains.”
The nation’s system under
the Affordable Care Act “is not financially sustainable” and
“lacks full Hyde protections and conscience rights,” said Bishop
Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
It also “is
inaccessible to many immigrants,” he said in a statement.
“Inaction will
result in harm for too many people,” Bishop Dewane added.
The failed repeal bill
was a pared-down version of earlier bills. It would have repealed both the
individual mandate that says all Americans must buy health insurance or pay a
penalty and the requirement all large employers offer health insurance to their
workers. It would have expanded health savings accounts, delayed a tax on
medical devices and increased funding for community health centers.
The vote was 51 against,
and 49 in favor. All the Democrats voted “no.” Sen. John McCain,
R-Arizona, joined two other GOP senators in rejecting the measure, Sens. Lisa
Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Kentucky, had pushed the latest version forward in hopes it would
be passed and lead to a conference with the House, which May 4 passed the
American Health Care Act to replace the ACA, to hammer out a compromise measure.
The Senate vote is over, but the need to reform health care remains, said
Bishop Dewane, who urged the two political parties to get past their divisions and
work for “the common good.”
“A moment has opened
for Congress, and indeed all Americans, to set aside party and personal
political interest and pursue the common good of our nation and its people,
especially the most vulnerable,” he said.
He laid out four action
items he said are essential to any bill to be considered in the future:
— “Protect the
Medicaid program from changes that would harm millions of struggling Americans.”
— “Protect the
safety net from any other changes that harm the poor, immigrants, or any others
at the margins.”
— “Address the real
probability of collapsing insurance markets and the corresponding loss of
genuine affordability for those with limited means.”
— “Provide full
Hyde Amendment provisions and much-needed conscience protections.”
“The greatness of
our country is not measured by the well-being of the powerful but how we have
cared for the ‘least of these,'” Bishop Dewane said. “Congress can
and should pass health care legislation that lives up to that greatness.”
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