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BY CHRISTINE KUMAR
UMConnection Staff

Scratch the surface of any meaningful discussion on health care and you'll be confronted with some difficult realities.

One discussion recently occurred at the Baltimore-Washington Conference Center. Gail Weaver tearfully recalled how her father sacrificed buying lower cost health insurance for his failing health so that he could also pay for his wife's insurance coverage.

Weaver's father had prostate cancer and her mother had early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

"Both of my parent's policies excluded prescriptions," said Weaver. For many years, Weaver and her siblings helped pay for their parents' costly medicine. "My father was taking 10 to 15 medications for his cancer and my mother needed medications as well," she said.

The Rev. Wayne DeHart, a Baltimore Region Guide, moderated a health-care community discussion at the Conference Center last month to discuss how the conference's health care plan could be more affordable for clergy, laity and their families.

The Presidential Transition Health Policy Team has encouraged Americans to host and attend health-care forums as part of President Obama's efforts to involve everyone, including United Methodists, to help design a system that provides quality and affordable health care to all.

Weaver's story was typical of the many health care issues that were discussed.

Participants shared stories about high cost deductibles, co-payments and prescriptions; accessibility to quality health care, especially in rural areas; and the need to have more free clinics.

The group collectively agreed that it is time to reform the healthcare system. They suggested universal coverage that would eliminate the need for numerous insurance plans and policies, a centralized database that makes diagnosis and treatment easier for doctors, and the need for the cost of health care to be evenly distributed among Americans.

The group also agreed that there must be control over prescription drug costs and that United Methodists should focus and encourage health wellness and preventive care starting with educating children and youth in schools, home and church.

"In addition, the church needs to be on the side of the poor," said DeHart. "We need to find ways to help and provide care for the underprivileged."

Sandy Ferguson, director of social justice for the Baltimore-Washington Conference, is also a vice president for "Maryland Health Care for All Coalition," which has more than 1,100 faith, labor, business and community groups that have been working to assist Marylanders to gain access to quality, affordable health care.

"All people should get quality, affordable health care regardless of age, religion, race, gender or socio-economic status," said Ferguson. ‘Health care is a basic human right and we, the church, view it as a responsibility - public or private,' she said quoting the United Methodist Social Principles.

A letter was recently sent to 680 pastors in the Baltimore-Washington Conference urging them to endorse a health care plan for all.

"This legislative plan is to ensure that everyone, including those who are self-employed and own small businesses, in Maryland gets high quality and affordable health care," she said. "Currently, we have 762,000 people in Maryland who have no health care coverage and many of them are in our church pews."

According to Ferguson, the Baltimore-Washington Conference has more than 150 churches that have parish nurse programs in which the parish nurses organize regular blood pressure screenings, visit shut-ins, provide health education and programs to the congregations.

Weaver watched her father die in hospice care and buried her mother 10 years later. She still grieves the loss. "I feel sorry for all people who go through this agony because they cannot afford proper healthcare. I think my parents could have lived longer with less stress," she said.