This page shows what Mennonite Church USA congregations are doing to study the issue of healthcare access. In addition, Mennonite Church USA conducted a study of congregations to understand what healthcare access issues are specifically affecting them. The preliminary results of that study are available here.
If you are just beginning the process of studying healthcare access in your congregation, these documents will prove useful in helping guide or begin your study.
Kern Road Mennonite Church
18211 Kern Road
South Bend, IN 46614
Contact: Donald Troyer dbtroyer@sbinet.com
A Sunday school class at Kern Road Mennonite Church studied the material in Healing Healthcare: A Study and Action Guide on Healthcare Access in the United States. The class met Feb. 26 through April 9 and had an average attendance of 12. Below are highlights from the thoughts of the class and suggested actions we
may take.
Lesson 1: The Current Situation
Concern was expressed for:
• Children who are not able to get healthcare.
• People who are not covered by insurance.
• Job decisions dictated by health insurance coverage and staying with a job only
to maintain health insurance coverage.
• The exorbitant cost of health insurance.
• After age 24 or if married the student must provide his/her own insurance and
many young and single people go without health insurance.
• The need for holistic care: physical, spiritual, mental.
• Place of work could give free membership to health club or spa to promote wellness.
Lesson 2 : The Bible and Christian Convictions comments:
• Shalom in the broadest sense is wishing good fortune, make whole in
relational community.
• Concrete action mutual sharing, prevention by educating on healthy habits.
Amish in Lancaster county have approached a hospital and arranged for fee
for service deal for the Amish community outside of any insurance.
Church budget for mutual aid.
• MMA grants, matching funds for health expense needs.
• Needs must be met of the poor, orphaned, widowed, anyone in need.
Lesson 3: The Christian and Anabaptist Legacy in Healthcare comments:
• 11-14th Century during Crusades the care of the injured provided by
monasteries on way home from battle.
• Early church example of all things shared in common, sell all, for all,
given to all. No needy person among us.
• Elders do care giving, visiting for the ministers.
• In the Bible healing stories all had a common thread of the need being met
first then the Gospel is subsequently shared and accepted. The miracle
performed attracted a lot to hear the gospel message.
• In times past there was spiritual, holy healing. Modern thinking recognizes technology and science is working to bring healing without
recognition of the spiritual, holy healing. Modern day faith healers on TV, even in plain view, people doubt it occurred.
Lesson 4: Improving Access Locally comments:
• Holistic health committee has a role to promote healthy responsible lifestyle, such as healthy food for potlucks.
• First Sunday of the month blood pressure screening, health fair cycled every 3 to 5 years.
• There is no information on those without insurance in the congregation.
Lesson 5: Public Policy comments:
• Glen Miller guest speaker and presented an overview of the healthcare system and the reasons that Mennonite Church USA should study this issue.
Lesson 6: What Will We Do? A Call to Action! Comments:
• It’s cheaper to cover the uninsured than to pay for the uninsured now. Cost of services to uninsured in providing one year of perfect health is valued at $1,645 to $3,280. The cost of providing healthcare to those without insurance is $65 billion to $130 billion per year. Cost of health insurance for an individual is estimated to cost $1,044-$1,866 per year. The cost of providing health insurance to the uninsured is $35 billion to $60 billion. The estimated write off of health insurance cost on reportable income causes a loss of about $140 billion per year. The conclusion is that providing insurance for those now uninsured is affordable and makes sense and can save money for society.
• An individual letter written on the Healthcare access problem and personally signed has the significance as if 2,000 people voiced the opinion.
• The government could consider a tax on unhealthy foods ice cream, pop, junk food, fast food, or on cosmetic surgery.
• Get rid of pharmaceutical commercials and run educational health messages disease prevention commercials. Look at ways to reform the system so profit component is out of the cost equation.
• Improve / increase preventative education. Encourage participation in free fitness activities walking etc., model healthy foods in schools, selective vending machine
options, regular physical activity.
• More reasonable cost for employer provided health coverage. Eventually eliminate the connection of healthcare insurance with employment.
• Medical data base on each person in a community, medical data retrieval
mechanism at point of service with the patient provided with a swipe card or zip drive with medicines, allergies, past medical history.
• Support Massachusetts model of universal health coverage.
Journal Articles:
It’s Cheaper to Cover the Uninsured www.memag.com Medical
Economics/July 8,2005pg 53 to 56.
Critical Condition; Three Big Ideas for Saving Our Ailing Healthcare System Physician Practice February 2006 pgs. 8, and pgs. 33 to 40.
Insurance and the U.S. Healthcare System N Engl J Med
354;4 www.nejm.org July 28, 2005.
Boulder Mennonite Church
3920 Table Mesa Dr.
Boulder, CO 80305
Contact: Susan Graber Karen@bouldermennonite.org
Healing Healthcare Christian Ed Class
January to March 2006
Ridgeview Mennonite Church
3723 Ridge Rd
Gordonville, PA 17529
Contact: Nelson Yoder, nelson_rvmc@frontiernet.net
Leading the Atlantic Coast Conference in making plans within the conference to share the findings and steps that congregations are taking in response to the Healing Healthcare study.
Congregational scorecard
Using study guide 45
Goal 300
Local access projects 19
Goal 75
Wellness programs 9
Goal 60
Belmont Mennonite Church
925 Oxford St.
Elkhart, IN 46516
Contact: Wilbert Shenk
office@belmontmc.org
We have devoted the Adult Nurture Hour for four Sundays (April 23, May 7, 14, 21) to a consideration of healthcare in the United States and our responsibility as Christians and as citizens in relation to this issue that is a matter of life and death for everyone. This summary highlights the key issues.
Healthcare for Everyone
Well over 45 million Americans lack health insurance. In 2004, 45.8 million people in the United States lived with absolutely no health insurance. That is 15.7 percent of the total population. Some people without health insurance manage to find coverage after some months, but nearly 29 million have to endure the worry and danger of not having insurance for an entire year or more.
The poor and minorities face the worst situation. Some 24 percent of all people with annual incomes below $25,000 are uninsured, in contrast to only 8.4 percent of uninsured people with incomes above $75,000. More than 19 percent of all African Americans and nearly 33 percent of all Hispanics lack health insurance, while just over 11 percent of non-Hispanic whites are uninsured. Unfortunately, over the past 15 years there has been a significant increase in the percentage of uninsured Americans.
Why do 45.8 million people in the richest nation on earth run the risk of living without health insurance? Because they cannot afford it. Less than 10 percent are uninsured by choice. Poor and lower-middle-class people simply cannot afford the high cost of private health insurance, which today costs between $5,000 and $8,000 a year for a family of four.
The percentage of people covered by health insurance through their employment has dropped in recent decades. Today just 59.8 percent of the population receives medical benefits through their employer. Even full-time workers are less likely to receive health insurance as an employee benefit. In fact, full-time workers, their spouses, or children make up 55 percent of the uninsured population. Part-time workers fare much worse. Only a mere 22 percent of part-time workers are even eligible for employer-funded health insurance, and only 12 percent receive it. The high cost of health insurance means that millions of hardworking, low-income parents simply have to choose between providing food and clothing for their families or having health insurance.
What happens when people lack insurance? Some people calmly assure us that there is no real problem because emergency rooms in public hospitals and clinics are supposed to care for anyone, regardless of whether the person has insurance. The facts tell a different story: (1) the uninsured are four times as likely as the insured to report that they needed medical care but did not get it; (2) they are three times more likely to report problems in paying medical bills; (3) and the uninsured get substantially poorer medical care even when they do see a doctor. Studies show that the uninsured enter hospitals sicker than the insured, receive fewer tests, and leave the hospital sooner.
Inferior access and treatment are especially common for minorities. Many studies show that African Americans are discharged “quicker and sicker” from hospitals and do not receive the same treatment white people do for similar problems – even when insured! Indeed, even when they have exactly the same coverage under Medicare as whites, they still receive inferior care. Hispanics and Native Americans face similar problems.
Poverty and poor health go hand in hand. Studies show that the poor experience more sickness than the non-poor. They also die younger. Tragically, the health gap between the poor and the rest of us is widening. Unlike the United States, every other wealthy nation today guarantees healthcare to every citizen, no matter how poor. With 45.8 million people in the United States uninsured, our healthcare system offers
What then should we do? The first thing is firmly to reject the conventional wisdom that nothing fundamental can be done now when high tax cuts for the rich, the Iraq war, and devastating hurricanes have caused high federal budget deficits.
Actually, things will get worse if those who care about poor people do nothing. President George W. Bush’s FY2006 budget proposal called for a net reduction of $45 billion in Medicaid spending over the next ten years and suggested the possibility of capping federal Medicaid spending. A federal cap would likely lead to increased costs placed on states and an inability for federal funds to keep up with rising medical costs. More Americans would become uninsured. At the same time that the House voted to cut healthcare funding for the poor, the House also voted for $106 billion in tax cuts over the next five years, benefiting members of high-income households, the same people who have also received most of the benefits from Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. Does the biblical standard of justice call us to cut healthcare for the poor while we increase tax cuts for the most wealthy? If we cut Medicaid over the next ten years, the poor will continue to be left behind. To some this may seem politically inevitable, but it is morally wrong. What is politically possible, of course, changes quickly when enough people demand action.
We should all write our political leaders and demand that the president and Congress appoint a bipartisan commission to recommend a workable way to insure everyone – implemented within four years. As voters we must make it clear that this is a non-negotiable demand for which we will hold every politician accountable at the polls.
What would happen if even 20 percent of the Christians in the United States did that? What would happen if 20 percent of our congregations organized writing campaigns, sending letters such as the one below? We would get action – fast! Do 20 percent of middle-class Christians care enough about the poor to do that?
You are encouraged to send a letter to your Representative and Senators, urging them to act. This is not a call to endorse a particular position or policy; rather it is a plea for action on a pressing national concern. You may use this letter below or write one that more fully reflects your concerns. It is always best to keep it brief and to the point.
Download the letter Belmont Mennonite Church encourages its members to use.
First Mennonite Church, Bluffton, Ohio
101 S. Jackson St.
Bluffton, OH 45817-1294
Contact: George Lehman, lehmang@bluffton.edu
Four adult Sunday school classes completed all (or nearly all) of the six session study guide, Healing Healthcare. In addition, we held two church-side summer Sunday
school sessions intended to bring other members up to date and generate some sense of direction. About 75 individuals participated in various sessions. The conversations were stimulating, but there was little emerging in the way of an overall direction though there are certainly members who hope for some follow up activity.
The church council reviewed the content of the sessions and asked what had been a “mental health concerns” committee to take this on as a continuing project. We concluded that while there are many obvious external issues we would attempt to first understand issues in our own congregation. We are in the process of searching for a healthcare needs/concerns tool for use in surveying the congregation. In addition, we asked that the Deacons expand our current “discernment group” focus to include healthcare concerns. This discernment process has been used to bring a variety of resources to members who have been experiencing a variety of life issues, and we felt like we should be intentional about including healthcare issues into the conversations.
While we don’t expect to see striking actions, we assume our regular council and commission working groups will begin to integrate healthcare access concerns more fully into the life of the congregation.
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