Both a political and a religious issue

Promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every person is a goal of the Social Action Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Alamosa. Based on that goal they voted to support the ColoradoCare Amendment 69 since it seemed to so clearly support the worth and dignity of every individual. Amendment 69 is a single payer healthcare system which would mean that all residents of Colorado would have healthcare. Currently, even with the various attempts to meet the healthcare needs of the public, we still have substantial numbers who have no healthcare except the use of emergency care facilities. Not only is this the most expensive kind of medical attention, it means that the individual did not have the ability to use preventive care, far less expensive and a tremendous boost to the quality of life for the individual.

Looking beyond the quality of life gained through preventive healthcare, we find that nationwide there are thousands of lives lost each year because of the lack of preventive medicine. With ColoradoCare we will have that preventive care available for everyone. Skyrocketing healthcare costs lead to 700,000 bankruptcies nationwide and ColoradoCare will make those a thing of the past in Colorado. Costs for healthcare will also be constrained because while ColoradoCare will have to raise $25 billion dollars through payroll and income taxes, it will replace the current almost $30 billion dollars spent for insurance, co-pays, deductibles and self pays. The $4.5 billion saved will stay in Colorado and lead to employment gains in Colorado. The taxes raised will be based upon ability to pay and will not force lower income families to self insure or do without healthcare.

The Social Action Committee felt that ColoradoCare also met the Unitarian Universalist goal of justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. The deductibles and co-pays required by insurance companies are factors which keep many people from seeking medical assistance. ColoradoCare will eliminate deductibles and will have low co-pays which can be waived for financial hardship.

While many issues are clearly in the political arena, there are few which don’t also have a strongly religious component. Politics often determines how those who have the least are treated and many religions tell us that how we threat those who have the least will reveal how moral we are.