Council of Churches of Santa Clara County

The Council staff created power point programs for regional meetings and for local congregations on “The Moral Stakes in Health Care Reform” emphasizing the need for (1) accessibility, (2) inclusiveness, (3) afforability and (4) accountability. The Council posed these questions for discussion: which is better: a using a for-profit business model; in which profits are not part of health care costs, or a mixed system of federal subsidies combined with regulation of employer payment requirements. The Council cautioned all proposals to acknowledge the rise of health costs drastically disproportionate to the rise in costs in the general economy, noting a Kaiser Health Foundation study showing the share of health care expenditures as a percentage of gross national product rising from 5.2 % in 1960 to nearly 15% in 2008. In 2009 alone costs were projected to increase by 14.5 %. The ethical meaning of these figures is that the number of uninsured or under-insured people in the country would rise rather than decline if wise reform measures are not introduce.  In presenting these programs the Council drew on faculty and other experts from Stanford, University of Santa Cruz and independent think tanks.