Catholic Health Insurance

A Tract Book Essay

By

Anthony J. Fejfar, J.D., Esq., Coif

© Copyright 2006 by Anthony J. Fejfar

Insurance is all about pooling and allocating risk. Today, in America

all sorts of people, including many men and women working full time jobs,

do not have health insurance. It is terrible to think that what little savings

you have could be eaten up in a health event, or, that one might go without

medical treatment and have to endure the pain and suffering resulting from

that situation.

I would like to argue that Catholic Social Justice requires that the

Catholic Church be involved in the provision of affordable, quality, health

insurance. The best way this could be accomplished would be if each

individual Catholic Diocese contracted with a private insurance company

such as Blue Cross, to have the Diocese as a whole including all employees,

priests, nuns, and willing laity, participate in a Diocesan wide health

insurance Group Plan. The Group would be wide enough and large enough

that a lower insurance rate could be obtained. Additionally, since it is a

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Catholic Group Plan, coverage for abortion, for example, could be

excluded.

For upper middle class, affluent, and rich Catholics, the whole

premium would be borne by the member. A sliding scale based on income

could then be used to allocate a fair premium to everyone else, including the

working poor, and the poor. A monthly collection in each parish could be

taken up to help the Diocese pay the costs of the sliding fee scale plan.

Lest you think that I am being overly sectarian here, I would also

argue that this model could be used for other Christian churches,

synagogues, etc.