Gaia Community Supports Medicare for All

At a recent Ritual for Business, the Committee of the Whole of Gaia Community adopted a resolution in support of the Medicare for All Act of 2019. Our support for this legislation follows decades of advocacy within our community and the Unitarian Universalist Association at large in favor of universal health care in the United States. We believe that health care is a human right, and hope that this Act will set us on the road to securing that right. The full text of our resolution follows.

Resolution in Support of the Medicare for All Act of 2019

WHEREAS, Gaia Community is a Kansas City Unitarian Universalist congregation and is concerned about the well-being of our members and the greater Kansas City community, and

WHEREAS, Unitarian Universalism is committed to the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equity and compassion in human relations; and the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large, and

WHEREAS, the number of Americans without health insurance is still nearly 30 million, while more than 40 million Americans remain underinsured, despite important gains made since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act; and

WHEREAS, managed care and other market-based reforms have failed to contain health care costs, which threaten the international competitiveness of U.S. businesses; and

WHEREAS, the existence of thousands of public and private insurance providers and regulators has resulted in extraordinarily complex health care business procedures that consume almost one-third of our nation’s expenditures for health care; and

WHEREAS, administrative waste stemming from our reliance on private insurers consumes one-third of private health spending while the single-payer Medicare system has administration costs of less than 5 percent; and

WHEREAS, numerous academic studies have concluded that the administrative savings under a single-payer, Medicare for All system would be enough to cover the currently uninsured and improve coverage for all those who now have only partial coverage; and

WHEREAS, millions with insurance have coverage so inadequate that a major illness would lead to financial ruin, and medical illness and bills contribute to two-thirds of all bankruptcies; and

WHEREAS, rationing health care according to ability to pay has diminished the overall health of our citizens to the point that the United States ranks last among industrialized nations in health outcomes and as many as 30,000 people in the United States die each year due to inadequate health care; and

WHEREAS, the Medicare for All Act of 2019 would provide national health insurance for every person in the United States for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs; hospital, surgical and outpatient services; primary and preventive care; emergency services; women’s reproductive care; dental and vision care; and long-term care; and

WHEREAS, the Medicare for All Act of 2019 would provide coverage without copays, deductibles or other out-of-pocket costs, and would slash bureaucracy, protect the doctor-patient relationship and assure patients a free choice of doctors; and

WHEREAS, recent polls show that a majority of Americans support Medicare-for-All; and

WHEREAS, every person in the Kansas City metro area and the entire United States of America deserves high quality health care; and

WHEREAS, the Medicare for All Act of 2019 will guarantee that all residents of the Kansas City Metro area will be fully covered for health care without copays, deductibles or other out-of-pocket costs, and would save millions in taxpayer dollars now spent on premiums that provide often inadequate health insurance coverage for employees; and

WHEREAS, the quality of life for the residents of the Kansas City metro will vastly improve because they would be able to get the ongoing care they need, instead of waiting until they have a medical emergency that could upend their lives as well as further burden local resources;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Gaia Community enthusiastically supports the Medicare for All Act of 2019 (H.R. 1384 and S. 1129) and calls on our federal legislators to work toward its immediate enactment, assuring appropriate and efficient health care for all residents of the United States.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *