Cardinal Mahony urges action to achieve health insurance for all

Published: 2007-10-05

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- California faces a tough uphill battle to reform its health care delivery system, but the growing need and the mounting pressure to address the issue may sway the Legislature and the voters to act, said panelists at a recent gathering on health care. "We simply cannot tolerate the injustice that leaves millions of our fellow sisters and brothers without the means to pay for health care -- many, for all their life, and most for some part of their lives," said Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony during the 13th annual public policy breakfast held at Shriners Hospital for Children in Los Angeles Sept. 28. "The uninsured receive too little medical service and receive it too late, and receive poorer care when they are in hospitals," he added. "And so we cannot tolerate the injustice of profit over people." More than 6 million Californians do not have health insurance. In Los Angeles, one in every four people is uninsured, and Latinos, Asian-Pacific-Islanders, African-Americans and immigrants are disproportionately represented among the uninsured. "As a people of faith, we believe that the life of every human being created in the image of God is uniquely precious and worthy of being safeguarded," said Cardinal Mahony.

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