Health Care Reform a Priority for JCRC
Arlene Groch, JCRC Chairperson 10/05/2009

Our Jewish Community Relations Counsel’s mission is “to inform, collaborate, advocate and take action on issues in the public arena that are of central concern to the Jewish community.”  Our efforts today focus on the health care issue.

We invite you to join JCRC’s efforts to convince Congress to send President Obama a Health Care Reform Bill that will

1.    Offer quality, affordable health insurance to the tens of millions of Americans who have no insurance protection today, or who are one job away from losing their current insurance
2.    Prohibit insurance companies from Denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition, dropping or weakening coverage when the insured get sick, capping benefits one can receive in a year or over a lifetime
3.     Include a strong Public Option which will give people a choice between it and private insurance plans, and thus motivate private insurers to provide more competitive, more comprehensive, coverage at more reasonable rates.

On Yom Kippur, Rabbi Aaron Gaber told his congregation that, “Judaism teaches us that we, as a community, have the obligation to provide all of its members with access to healthcare.” Please read the brief excerpt below from Rabbi Gaber’s sermon, and contact me to find out how YOU can help JCRC “inform, collaborate, advocate and take action” on this critically important issue. To learn more about the pending health care legislation, please join me at the FELS’ Oct. 16th luncheon and program. Their flier with contact information is also on our JFED web page.

Arlene Groch,
JCRC Chairperson
aggroch@mac.com  / 609 646 9447

Excerpt from Rabbi Gaber’s Yom Kippur Sermon:

Recently, you may have read in the New York Times or in the Wall Street Journal about a young woman from Tennessee named Nikki. She was a slim and athletic college graduate who had health insurance, had worked in health care and knew the system. But she had systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic inflammatory disease that was diagnosed when she was 21 and gradually left her too sick to work. And once she lost her job, she lost her health insurance.
In any other rich country, Nikki probably would have been fine. Some 80 percent of lupus patients in the United States live a normal life span. Under a doctor’s care, lupus should be manageable.  Nikki tried everything to get medical care, but no insurance company would accept someone with her pre-existing condition. Finally, Nikki collapsed at her home and was rushed to a hospital emergency room, which was then required to treat her without payment until her condition stabilized. Since money was no longer an issue, the hospital performed 25 emergency surgeries on Nikki, and she spent six months in critical care.
By the time she had received all this amazing and expensive care, it was too late. In 2006, Nikki White died at age 32. Nikki’s doctor, Amylynn Crawford said, “Nikki didn’t die from lupus. She died from complications of the failing American health care system.”
Nikki’s story was singled out but she is not alone; according to a recent study done by the National Academy of Sciences, every year 18,000 people die simply because they lacked access to healthcare.  That is one person dying every 30 minutes – That is four people just during our service this evening and that is nearly 50 people over Yom Kippur.  They are not dying from their illness.  And they are not dying from a crime but purely from our society’s neglect.  We are not following through on our communal responsibilities.
And while I have spoken of New Orleans and Nikki from Tennessee, this healthcare crisis affects all of us not just people in far away places but right here in our community and I can prove it to you.
Raise your hand if you or someone you know has ever been without healthcare coverage.
 Raise your hand if you or someone you know has ever been denied coverage.
 Raise your hand if your coverage has ever denied you a medication or treatment that you needed.
 Raise your hand if you have ever faced a financial burden or debt because of costs related to healthcare.

If you raised your hand at any one point, then you know it is time for us to do something about it.
Robert Fulghum wrote:
 “The line between good and evil, hope and despair does not divide the world between us and them. It runs down the middle of every one of us. I do not want to talk to you about what you understand about this world, I want to know what you will do about it. I do not want to know what you hope; I want to know what you will work for. I do not want your sympathy for the needs of humanity, I want your muscle. As the wagon driver said when they came to a long hard hill: “Them that’s going on with us, get out and push. Them that ain’t, get out of the way.”
As we start this New Year, who among us are ready to stand up and push together for creating a healthy and more compassionate society?

Please complete the petition on the next page.