A Real Pro-Life Voter's Guide

My church always has a stack of voter’s guides from the California Pro-Life Council. The guides are based only on whether a candidate is anti-abortion or not. However, being a pro-life candidate means supporting legislation that helps people in all stages of their lives. A true pro-life candidate should want to end the occupation of Iraq and provide healthcare for all Americans.

Ending the occupation of Iraq

The online publication, Just Foreign Policy estimates that over a million Iraqi civilians have been killed by U.S. troops since the beginning of the war in 2003. Last month, on January 16, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008 which continues to fund the occupation of Iraq.

Only forty-six representatives voted against the Act, including former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

Providing healthcare for all Americans

“Every other industrialized nation in the world provides universal health care to its citizens” Rep. Jim McDermott (D) of Washington says on his website. The U.S. is in fact the only industrialized country which does not provide a form of universal health coverage.

Americans annually spend $5,267 per capita on health care, while the industrialized world’s median is $2,193. The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country in the world. Presidential candidate John Edwards remarked, “We're spending more on health care costs than any other country in the industrial world and getting one of the worst products out the other end.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks the U.S. as 27th in the industrialized world for infant mortality. The average life expectancy, according to the WHO, in the U.S. is age 78, ranking 25th among industrialized nations. The average number of good health years is 69, also ranking 25th, and below Slovenia. According to the Institute of Medicine, 18,000 deaths in the U.S. are caused by lack of health insurance.

Five years ago Rep. John Conyers (D) introduced the United States National Health Insurance Act (HR 676). The legislation’s stated purpose is “to provide for comprehensive health insurance coverage for all United States residents, and for other purposes.”

Reintroduced last January, the Act would extend coverage to “every person living in or visiting the U.S. and U.S. Territories.” A United States National Health Insurance Card and ID number would be issued to every person living in the U.S. Coverage would include prescription drugs, mental health services, emergency care, primary care and prevention, and vision care.

According to Conyers, the Act would “cover all medically necessary services…Patients have their choice of physicians, providers, hospitals, clinics and practices. No co-pays or deductibles are permitted under this act.”

The program would be funded by the existing sources of revenues for current health care programs such as Medicare. After a five year period the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Services would be integrated into the program. Taxes would be increased for the top five percent of wage earners for further sources of funds.

Co-sponsor Rep Dennis Kucinich (D) of Ohio said, “Health care is one issue that unites Americans across party lines, across income lines. Because every person realizes that a single illness in a family can wipe out that family financially. So health care and the accessibility and affordability of health care is central to the government’s responsibility to provide - to promote the general welfare.”

“This bill would control skyrocketing health costs and restore choice of physician and the doctor-patient relationship,” said co-sponsor Rep. Lynn Woolsey.