Accessible, Affordable Health Care
is a Moral Imperative

By the Rev. Dr. Walter J. Smith, S.J.

Many Americans believe that our nation is morally required to provide access to affordable health care for every citizen, a conviction reaffirmed by President Obama in his State of the Union Address in January.

Health care is rooted in both a civic duty and ethical obligation, which are foundational to the social contract that holds together any civilized society. As the President stated, Americans must be protected from lamentable insurance practices that deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Further, each of us should have the right to choose our doctors and health insurance plans.

With the burgeoning costs of health care, more Americans are finding even basic coverage to be beyond their means. In this state of emergency, with health care expenditures digging deeper holes into our Gross Domestic Product, the President is right to remind us that “generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain.”

The President is not alone in his vision. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans say they want Congress to keep working to pass comprehensive health-care reform.

Our elected representatives must find a cooperative way to offer a smarter, more affordable and accessible health care system to all Americans. Obscured by all the shouting is the moral imperative and principled belief that we owe this to one another.

PlainViews Begins its Seventh Year
of Serving the Chaplaincy Profession

“It is hard to believe that we are beginning our seventh year of e-publishing PlainViews,” reflects the Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs, Managing Editor.

Since its founding in 2004, PlainViews has published over 700 articles and 81 book reviews.

Among the members of the Advisory Board who reflected on PlainViews’ last six years, Chaplain Rozann Shakleton notes: “PlainViews is a trendsetter with respect to electronic delivery. It has provided a vehicle for cross pollination between the North American chaplaincy associations and over the years has become international in scope. I see this interconnection as vital to furthering the profession of chaplaincy.”

“From the responses that I receive to PlainViews from around the world,” notes Dr. Jacobs, “it has been clear that we have brought the world of pastoral care to a new level of awareness of how and where professional chaplaincy is provided. It has also brought chaplains who work by themselves a sense of community: PlainViews has helped them to feel like they are part of something greater.”

View HealthCare Chaplaincy’s President & CEO
on Public TV’s Open Mind

Through the video now on our website homepage you can view the Rev. Dr. Walter J. Smith, S.J., speaking with host Professor Richard D. Heffner, on The Open Mind, public television’s longest-running interview program.

Topics include the national health care policy debate, the role of professional multifaith chaplaincy in palliative care, defining spirituality, the culture of dying in America, and plans for HealthCare Chaplaincy’s enhanced assisted living residence.

Just click here.

Our New Prayer Card: Bringing Help
When a Chaplain Isn’t There

When one of our chaplains is with a patient and loved ones in the hospital room, the chaplain brings them comfort and enables them to find meaning by drawing upon their personal source of spiritual strength.

When the chaplain departs, we want to continue to be of help.

That’s why, in 2008, HealthCare Chaplaincy introduced a multifaith prayer card entitled “A Patient’s Prayer,” with a universal message of comfort and hope. It proved so popular we’ve had to reprint it. The new version features a soothing image of a forest in the mist. It also encourages the reader to visit our website’s online caring resources at healthcarechaplaincy.org/care.

The new prayer card utilizes the optimum typeface, color and size for easy reading based on guidelines from The Lighthouse, the nonprofit organization that serves the visually impaired.

“I feel proud to give this prayer card to my patients,” says Eileen McKeon Pesek, Director of Pastoral Care and Education at Beth Israel Medical Center. “One gentleman patient told me that he keeps the card standing upright on his tray as a reminder that God is with him, and that he feels the warm love, prayers and concern of people in his life.”

Please click here to see the new prayer card.