Health care that protects the life and dignity of all

Here is the prepared text of the talk that retired healthcare administrator Richard Meiers delivered at the annual Red Mass, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, Jan. 21, 2010.

By Richard E. Meiers

Good morning — friends all.

Thank you for inviting me to participate in this Mass of the Holy Spirit, which is held every year at the opening of the State Legislature of Hawaii.

It is truly an honor to participate with such a group of public officials. I especially greet those of other faiths as we join together in prayer today for the government of the state of Hawaii.

The Red Mass we are participating in this morning is very rich in tradition. It goes back many centuries when the Mass of the Holy Spirit opened the fall term of the English courts. This morning we also turn to the Holy Spirit as we pray that he will guide, strengthen and inspire each of you to carry out your sacred responsibilities to the citizens of Hawaii as we are aware of the responsibilities you carry.

We have just begun a new decade with great hope after a year of great trouble for our economy, our state and all of our citizens. Not only has our country been consumed with the poor economy but also a lack of jobs. At the same time we have been deeply involved in the debate as to how we should improve our health care system.

Speaking as a parent and grandparent, with all of them calling Hawaii their home, I am very concerned about the different roads the health care debate has gone down. I believe most Americans feel changes are needed in our health care system because we cannot afford to continue in the future what we have been paying in the past for health care. The most thought-provoking question has been, “What can we, as a nation, afford to spend on health care?”

No issue in recent memory has been debated in such depth across our nation. Even though this has happened and everyone seems to be aware of the health care problem, according to all present polling data, less than a majority of Americans support the present plan.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have passed their versions of health care reform, and now both chambers have begun conference committees. During these committee meetings, members of both the Senate and the House selected by Senate President Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will come up with a compromise bill which may or may not look like either bill which has already passed. The general feeling is that the final product will look more like the Senate provision. Remember, whatever the committees come up with at the end of deliberations, 60 votes are needed for any bill to pass the Senate.

There is one issue which still seems to be the overriding issue, and that is, can the nation afford even the senate version of the bill? Or will it increase the budget deficit greater than it is now? Some members of the senate say it won’t and they cite the congressional budget office which has stated that the budget deficit will decrease over the next 10 years if we use only the data that is presently in the senate bill.

Most who have studied the proposed legislation say that spending cuts in Medicaid and Medicare will not happen and that physician and hospital fees will be reduced by 21 percent in March of this year as planned in the bill. And no one is even mentioning what will happen with state taxes.

Most seniors that I talk with expect to see a reduction in their benefits from Medicare and they feel they will pay higher taxes in order to pay for the provisions which are both in the bill and not.

It seems almost certain that state and local taxes will have to be increased to cover the costs of Medicaid payments being shifted from the federal government to the states. Finally, I think you can expect federal taxes to increase to pay for this new program and other new social programs which are still being considered by the Congress.

There are so many problems facing our nation right now and solutions are very costly. I don’t see how we can do everything at once. We must set priorities. All of our efforts should go into that number one priority, whether it be health care, the economy, jobs, reducing poverty in America, or our most recent crisis of helping Haiti recover from that disastrous earthquake. We as a nation cannot for the sake of our children and grandchildren afford to do everything at once.

When we first began to discuss a subject for today’s Mass back during the first week of September, everyone thought we would have reform of our health care system in a few weeks. Deadline after deadline has passed and now we are in 2010 with no healthcare reform package yet. Unfortunately it became a very partisan issue. We all agree that some kind of healthcare reform is needed, but if it does occur in 2010, what will it look like? The employer mandate which Hawaii has had for years should be protected under any type of reform.

We support universal health coverage which protects the life and dignity of all, especially those who are poor and vulnerable. We oppose any efforts to expand abortion funding, mandates any abortion coverage, or endangers the conscience rights of health care providers and religious institutions.

Finally, we support effective measure to safeguard the health of immigrants, their children and all of society.

Now having said all this about health care reform, the entire issue was further clouded the day before yesterday with the senatorial election in Massachusetts. As of this morning, none of us knows the future of heath care reform. Hopefully, bipartisanship will return and we will still see some type of reform emerge this year.

Happy New Year to each of you, and may all of our government officials who now begin work on behalf of all Hawaii’s citizens this year, remember the life of Hawaii’s first saint, Father Damien, who worked so hard on behalf of Hawaii’s sick and disadvantaged to the point of his death.

Thank you!