LWV Presents Public Health and Religious Influence Forum

— by Cara Russell —

Last Monday, November 18, the League of Women Voters  of the San Juans (LWV-SJ) held a Membership Meeting at the San Juan Island Grange. The two-hour meeting was open to the public, and nearly 100 San Juan County residents attended. The topic under discussion was “Controversy and Clarity: Healthcare and Religious Institutions in Washington State.”

The catalyst for this discussion is the recent signing  of a 50-year contract between Peace Island Medical Center board and Peace Health; a religiously affiliated healthcare corporation.

Sarah Crosby LWV-SJ officer introduced the meeting, saying “We are here today not to advocate, but to inform and expand our knowledge about some of the issues involved in our state.”Our League felt that a discussion of these issues by people engaged with them every day would be of value to our own ongoing community dialogue.

“The State and National Leagues have positions on the separation of church and state, as well as on access to women’s reproductive health care. In view of these positions and our growing awareness of developments in the health care field, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we felt that our own ongoing education would be served by this discussion.

“According to state wide media, soon nearly 50 percent of hospital beds will be offered by healthcare organizations with religious affiliations,” said Crosby. “And this trend is not just state-wide, but a national trend as well.  [Does the public] accept the possible ramifications of this trend?

“Do our citizens have access to the healthcare that our laws allow?”

Four presenters spoke on the topic; then the meeting was opened up to written questions from the public. “We are grateful to our panelists who have come great distances in some cases. We have asked them here today, because they have particular expertise at the issues at hand,” said Crosby.

First to speak was Cynthia Stewart,  LWV of WA Health Care  lobby team member. She is conversant with League positions on access to health care, women’s reproductive health, and the state’s “Death with Dignity” law.

Jeff Mero is Executive Director of the Association of Washington Public Hospital Districts. Mero has worked on behalf of the hospitals in WA State for over 30 years, and he has represented the hospitals twice on state initiatives on “Death with Dignity. ” Mero spoke to the daily challenges with which public hospital districts contend in meeting the demands of health care for their communities in the face of the economic downturn and cuts in government funding.

Mero expressed his appreciation of  such a turnout of interest in the community. “I want to encourage you to get smarter, as there is a fair amount to read here, and the issues are complicated. I encourage you to find the Washington State Constitution, and look for article 1 and read section eleven.” (Provided here).

Monica Harrington is an activist and owner of the blog catholicwatch.org, dealing with religious restrictions on health care. She works  at the state and national level with several organizations; raising awareness for the public on the subjects of the religious institutions and their influence on healthcare nationally.

Harrington said, “Over the past years, conservative Catholic Bishops here in WA state and across the nation … aggressively push their agenda which involves moving women’s health backwards and depriving patients of their rights, all on the tax payer dime. The Bishops’ rules, when imposed on society at large are incompatible with a multicultural democratic society.”

David Miller is the President of the Greater Seattle Chapter of Americans United for Separation of  Church and State. He referenced religious freedom for all in the religion clause in the First Amendment to the US Constitution that states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,  or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Miller also quoted Thomas Jefferson: “Religious institutes that use Government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights.”

He then also referenced the State of Washington’s Constitution, section 11: “No public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction, or the support of any religious establishment.”

Miller spoke of recent public hospital mergers with “Catholic providers” in Washington state. He quoted PeaceHealth’s Mission Statement: “We carry on the healing mission of Jesus Christ by promoting personal and community health, relieving pain and suffering, and treating each person in a loving and caring way.”

Miller said that he has no cause to question PeaceHealth’s sincerity in that mission. However his concern is that legal medical services may be denied because of a religious doctrine of the hospital treating the patient. He listed Catholic Health Systems in the state as including Providence Health & Services, PeaceHealth, and Franciscan Health System; and observed that “All of these organizations follow the ethical and religious directive from Catholic Healthcare Services, of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

Miller asked, “Are San Juan residents receiving all the legally medically appropriate services they would expect from a publicly funded hospital without any interference from a religious doctrine?”

“There are a lot of rural hospitals in the stage of Washington that are challenged. There are six that I expect will go into bankruptcy next year. Access to care in rural communities is a real challenge. We don’t have enough doctors, and nurses, and we don’t have enough people living in those communities to really support a medical delivery system, and access to care in rural communities is at real risk.”

After the presentations, the meeting was opened to questions from the audience which were vetted and consolidated by League officers. Following the meeting, Crosby commented that,  many of the questions directed specifically to Peace Island Medical Center were edited to address the broader issues, “as best we could. I think we largely succeeded in that.

“It is our hope that the presentations and discussion which followed will make more clear to us all, the issues which have arisen and the complexity of their resolution.

“The issues is broader than our circumstances, and it is the broader issue we wish to consider.”