Episcopalians in St. Louis will join in an interfaith rally on Sunday, May 1, and a May 5 Hope and Health Summit in Detroit are among 1,200 activities planned this week to highlight the plight of the estimated 45 million Americans -- including 10 million children -- without health-care coverage of any kind.
These activities are part of the annual "Cover the Uninsured Week," May 1-8, which creates a broad coalition of businesses, hospital and health care agencies, philanthropic and faith groups to focus public awareness and to prompt legislative action to aid the uninsured. Further information and online resources are posted at http://www.CoverTheUninsuredWeek.org.
"We are morally obligated to speak and act," says Dr. Eileen Lindner, NCC deputy general secretary and chair of the National Interfaith Advisory Board for Cover the Uninsured Week. "We are morally bound to advocate for our uninsured neighbors, many of whom needlessly suffer because they don't get the medical care they need."
Former Presidents Gerald Ford -- himself an Episcopalian -- and Jimmy Carter are honorary co-chairs of the event, and Noah Wyle, star of the top-rated television drama "ER," is national spokesperson for the week.
"Tens of millions of Americans, most of them working, do not have health coverage of any kind. Most of them put off going to the doctor when they need to, just because they can't afford the care that the rest of us take for granted," Wyle said. "I've spent the last decade playing the role of a doctor on a program that depicts the plight of uninsured people who arrive in a Chicago emergency room, seeking medical care they can find nowhere else. These stories have had a profound effect on me, and I am proud to join former Presidents Ford and Carter in this effort to let all Americans know that they can make a difference. Too many Americans are at risk for finding themselves uninsured, so Cover the Uninsured Week is for everyone, not just those who are currently uninsured."
Wyle cited a study for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) which found that Texas leads the nation in the percentage of uninsured adults, most of them employed. Minnesota claims the lowest percentage.
"There is an old image that people who are uninsured don't work or are on public assistance," said Stuart Schear of RWJF. "That's not really been accurate and is completely inaccurate today." The study was based on 2003 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Other states with high percentages of uninsured are Louisiana, with 26.4 percent of all adults uninsured, including 22.6 percent of working adults, and New Mexico with 26 percent of all adults uninsured, including 22.6 percent of working adults.
Interfaith efforts are coordinated through the National Council of Churches, which is urging additional mosques, synagogues, churches and congregations to host interfaith forums, to offer special prayers and devote study sessions to helping the people without insurance.
Garland Pohl, a member of the Interfaith Advisory Board and a Catholic, called it a "compelling issue."
"Religious institutions and persons are called by their traditions and Scriptures to care for other people," Pohl said. "This is an issue of care and concern about health and welfare which is part of that religious mandate."
