By Lou Fink

A comprehensive health insurance program for all citizens is not likely to be enacted by the United States Congress for a long time. This was the view of Edward J. Krill, L.L.B., representing the Department of Health Affairs of the United States Catholic Conference in Washington, D.C. Krill was in Atlanta to address a conference of diocesan coordinators of health Affairs. Priests, sisters and laymen gathered at the Regency Hyatt House from 60 American dioceses.

Krill said that hearings held by the House Ways and Means Committee revealed the inadequacy of existing insurance plans, but that there was no agreement on a comprehensive program. Improvements in coverage will come gradually and over a long period of time, he explained.

The conference heard statistics on the rising cost of hospital care. From a base of 100 in 1959, hospital charges have risen to 304, while the Consumer Price Index rose only to 138 in the same period. Eighty-one per cent of all Americans have some medical insurance and 71 per cent of the costs are met. The federal government pays half of all the hospital bills in the United States.

In a prepared statement given to the delegates, Msgr. Harold A. Murray, director of the Executive Committee of Diocesan Coordinators, wrote that there was general agreement in Washington that quality health care should be available at reasonable cost to all. “No single proposal among those now pending appears to have sufficient backing for passage,” said Msgr. Murray. His report pointed out that medical care cost $26 billion in 1960 and almost $70 billion in 1970.

The United States Catholic Conference expressed to the Ways and Means Committee its opinion that health care is a right of all citizens and a responsibility of society. “A national insurance program must promote equality in health care,” said the statement.

The GEORGIA BULLETIN asked Msgr. Murray to comment on the increased pressure to tax hospitals and other church property. “This feeling exists in many states, not just in Georgia,” he said in reply. “There is a recognition that hospitals will be asked to pay for the services they require: sewage, police, and fire protection, for example. It should be recognized that denominational hospitals (Catholic or otherwise) are community resources not restricted to members of a particular denomination.

“Nationally, 53 per cent of the patients in Catholic hospitals are not Catholics; about 50 per cent of the staff in Catholic hospitals are not Catholics, either.”

A number of speakers addressed the delegates during their three-day meeting in Atlanta. The Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan, D.D., Archbishop of Atlanta, welcomed the visitors. Local arrangements were made by the Rev. Patrick C. Connell, diocesan coordinator for Health Affairs in Atlanta and chaplain at Our Lady of perpetual Help Free Cancer Home.