Bishop's Statements

Statement in favor of Healthy Workers

March 20, 2008

The social teachings of the Catholic Church affirm the importance of health care as a basic human need and directs us to focus our efforts on those who lack health care.

The fulfillment of the basic needs of the poor is of the highest priority. Personal decisions, policies of private and public bodies, and power relationships must be all evaluated by their effects on those who lack the minimum necessities of nutrition, housing, education and health care.

(Economic Justice for All, A Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy - U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1986)

Over the last few years, the communities of Santa Clara County have worked hard to expand health coverage to our region’s most vulnerable populations. This commitment to compassion and justice resulted in the Children’s Health Initiative, a first-in-the-nation universal health insurance program for children that has brought health care to more than 125,000 kids since it began. Despite this progress, many adults in our community continue to struggle to keep up with the rising cost of health insurance premiums, and thousands more cannot afford basic health care and remain uninsured. Healthy Workers is an opportunity to offer job-based health coverage to many adults in our community who are excluded from the current insurance system. Up to 24,000 uninsured, low- and middle-income working adults will be eligible for this new local health insurance program.

Healthy Workers uplifts those most in need both by extending coverage to the uninsured and strengthening our health care delivery system. It offers a comprehensive low-cost health insurance plan to employees that currently don’t have access to coverage, and provides new sources of revenue to our struggling public health care safety net institutions in the form of monthly premiums from workers and employers.

Healthy Workers also provides an opportunity for community members to join together in working toward universal health coverage for all residents in Santa Clara County. Healthy Workers brings together the faith community, small businesses, health care providers and social justice advocates to collectively help to expand health coverage to some of our region’s most vulnerable residents.

I urge our pastors and their collaborators in ministry to promote this vital program by helping to educate their parishioners and the broader community members by reaching out to small businesses in your neighborhoods to enroll in Healthy Workers.