Religious leaders and community residents gathered Oct. 19 at a downtown church to discuss the impact that lack of health insurance has on their lives, and what they think should be done to make health insurance more affordable.

As a health care reform bill moves one step closer to a vote in Congress, leaders from the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities, along with other Chicago residents, assembled at the Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington St., to remember those who have been victimized by what they consider an unjust health care system and to make sure that human dignity is not negotiated away in the new bill.  After the event, they delivered a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin highlighting the impact of the current system on area families.

One of the main reasons they gathered was to mourn the 45,000 people dying each year due to a lack of affordable health insurance, according to Healthcare for America Now. Churches, synagogues and mosques across the country came together last week to ensure that the moral argument is not lost in the health care debate.

Larry Greenfield, executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago, said a number of denominational leader developed a letter in June to send to the Illinois Delegation about their shared position on health care reform. The letter was signed by 21 heads of Catholic seminaries in the Chicago area.

“The letter included Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist and so on,” Greenfield said. “In a country with the best medical schools, the best doctors and best medical resources, we must be able to offer quality health care to all of our residents. Even more importantly, it is simply immoral for a nation of our wealth and our ethical standing in the world to continue to have so many millions, millions of people uninsured and underinsured.”

Greenfield said he thinks the most ethical system for our nation is a single payer system. A single payer system is a government entity financing the delivery of near-universal or universal health care to the entire population. But because it doesn’t seem to be politically possible at this point, Greenfield said he would be satisfied with the strongest alternative—one that includes a public option.

With the economic downturn during the past year and rising unemployment rates, people are losing their insurance coverage because they are losing their jobs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,  9.5 percent of Americans are unemployed as of July, compared to 3.8 percent 10 years ago. In Illinois, 10.5 percent of residents are unemployed, as opposed to the 4.1 percent in 1999.

The leaders and residents are affected by this decline in jobs. Some aren’t sure of what to do because they, or their loved ones, don’t have health insurance.

Alexander Sharp, executive director of the Protestants for the Common Good, is one of many Americans who are in trouble with health insurance. He is 65, and a Medicare recipient, but his wife on the other hand, who has her own business and is a consultant from home, doesn’t have insurance. Sharp has recently thought about going off of Medicare and going back on the insurance offered through Protestants for the Common Good so his wife could get coverage.

“She worked all her life and she recently resigned from her job,” Sharp said. “She has a pre-existing condition and therefore she’s having a great deal of trouble finding coverage. Why should pre-existing conditions be the reason in this society for someone not to get healthcare? A pre-existing condition would seem to me to dictate that you need healthcare.”

Margaret O’Dell, Sharp’s wife, has high blood pressure and he said that’s one of the main reasons she isn’t able to get health insurance. She said she was on COBRA—short term, temporary health insurance—but she has tried to replace it with individual coverage that has proven difficult. COBRA—a health benefit provision passed in 1986—is the extension of coverage that everyone is legally entitled to and is a supplemental insurance policy that provides temporary health insurance to eligible workers and their dependents when they are between jobs by extending the coverage of the most recent employer. It’s the same coverage that a person receives from his or her employer, but he or she has to cover the full cost themselves.

“I did not think it would be this difficult to get somebody to cover me [after I left my job],” O’Dell said. “I think we need to have some kind of system that offers care to everybody. It doesn’t make sense to me for companies whose need is to make a profit, to be offering this kind of insurance.”

Nearly 50 guests were at the event, with the same message about health care reform. The gathering of various religions proves clear that health care is an essential topic that many Americans can agree on.

“We certainly have to control the growth of cost as much as we can,” Sharp said. If we miss this opportunity, I think we’re going to have to wait for a while and I don’t think we can afford to do that.”

the Protestants for the Common Good, is one of many Americans who are struggling with inadequate health insurance. He is 65 and a Medicare recipient, but his wife, who has her own business and is a consultant from home, doesn’t have insurance. Sharp has recently thought about going off of Medicare and going back on the insurance offered through Protestants for the Common Good so his wife could get coverage.

“She worked all her life and she recently resigned from her job,” Sharp said. “She has a pre-existing condition and therefore she’s having a great deal of trouble finding coverage. Why should pre-existing conditions be the reason in this society for someone not to get health care? A pre-existing condition would seem to me to dictate that you need healthcare.”

Margaret O’Dell, Sharp’s wife, has high blood pressure and he said her condition makes getting health insurance difficult. She said she was on COBRA—short term, temporary health insurance—but she has tried to replace it with individual coverage that has proven difficult. COBRA—a health benefit provision passed in 1986—is the extension of coverage that everyone is legally entitled to and is a supplemental insurance policy that provides temporary health insurance to eligible workers and their dependents when they are between jobs by extending the coverage of the most recent employer. It’s the same coverage that a person receives from his or her employer, but he or she has to cover the full cost themselves.

“I did not think it would be this difficult to get somebody to cover me [after I left my job],” O’Dell said. “I think we need to have some kind of system that offers care to everybody. It doesn’t make sense to me for companies whose need is to make a profit, to be offering this kind of insurance.”

Nearly 50 guests were at the event, with the same message about health care reform. The gathering proved  health care is an essential topic that many can agree on.