Health Care?

One of the most extensive analyses of the elements of health care reform came in a joint statement by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., and Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo.

"Despite the many flaws with our current policies, change itself does not guarantee improvement," they said in the Sept. 1 statement. "Many of the proposals which have been promoted would diminish the protection of human life and dignity and shift our health care costs and delivery to a centralized government bureaucracy."

The Catholic obligation to the common good requires that "we must find some way to provide a safety net for people in need without diminishing personal responsibility or creating an inordinately bureaucratic structure which will be vulnerable to financial abuse, be crippling to our national economy, and remove the sense of humanity from the work of healing and helping the sick," the Kansas City bishops said.
(From Catholic News Service)