Boston’s top Catholic official asks lawmakers to keep ALL Massachusetts families healthy. Cardinal Sean O’Malley posted this blog about 28,000 legal immigrants who stand to lose their Commonwealth Care coverage.
“The Governor and the Legislature in the commonwealth face excruciatingly difficult choices this week. Final decisions about the budget bring together the fact of an economy in deep recession, declining state revenues and multiple human needs among the citizens of the commonwealth …
A particular issue of concern to me is the possibility that funding for health coverage for 28,000 legal immigrants may be cut in whole or in part. The Church, through Catholic Charities and through our parishes, is in direct and regular service of the immigrant community.
My hope and my request is that a way can be found to sustain health coverage for these legal members of our community. Their resources are few and their support system is always stretched thin. The commonwealth has done a very commendable job of providing health care to the citizens of Massachusetts. It would be a tragic mistake to let these 28,000 members of our community lose access to the precious good of health care.”
Health Care For All is grateful for the Cardinal’s support and we thank him for publicly speaking out for these 28,000 legal, taxpaying Massachusetts residents. We will continue to urge the Legislature to support the compromise package of $70 million dollars and keep ALL Massachusetts families healthy.
Click here to read Cardinal O’Malley’s entire blog post The importance of health care for legal immigrants.
Cardinal does not want to see the state make a “tragic mistake”
Then the Cardinal ought to have urged the powers that be to not enact the misguided “Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006″ law aka “the individual mandate law”. It was sham reform concocted by the insurance industry and their medical-industrial cabal (read Partners Healthcare and Pharma et al).
The “landmark” law forces state residents to purchase expensive private insurance of questionable quality (2K and 4k deductibles, anyone?) under threat of tax fines.
The law forces taxpayers to subsidize purchase of said overpriced insurance in a costly, overly bureaucratic fashion that most certainly will lead to the many cuts we have and will continue to see in this deeply flawed program.
Cardinal, where were you when the residents of the Commonwealth were toiling away on yet another statewide universal healthcare ballot initiative (Question 5 in 2000 and the Health Care Constitutional Amendment in 2003-2006) that sought to permanently place people before profits in our healhtcare system?
Yes, the 28,000 people referred to in this post need and deserve healthcare. So does everyone else. Guaranteed Healthcare. Equitable healthcare. Cardinal Bernadin’s eloquent words on this issue point to the work that must be pursued; this work most decidedly is NOT an individual mandate to purchase private insurance nor to rely on a house of cards to subsidize purchase of said private insurance.
“Health care is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity, and there is an obligation for society to ensure that every person be able to realize this right.”
—Cardinal Joseph Bernardin