Affordable Health Care

Ensure Health Insurance for 4 Million Kids

Jewish tradition teaches us that "by the breath of children, God sustains the world" (Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 119b). On January 23rd, the House has scheduled a vote to override President Bush's second veto of a bill to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which helps fund state initiatives to provide health insurance for more than four million uninsured children. Congress has passed and sent to the President two compromise bills that would reauthorize this life-saving program and expand its budget. The President has vetoed both bills. Take Action! Urge Congress to override this veto. For more information, contact Legislative Assistant Jessica Weiser at 202.387.2800.

Saving a Life One Net At a Time: Reform Movement's Campaign to Fight Malaria

In Africa, more than one million people infected with malaria die each year. But the spread of malaria is largely preventable. Studies show that the use of insecticide-treated bed nets can reduce transmission by as much as 90%. The solution is simple and cost-effective. A $10 donation goes directly toward the purchase and distribution of the life-saving nets. Join the Union for Reform Judaism's "Nothing But Nets" campaign to supply 50,000 bed nets to families in sub-Saharan Africa. Make a donation. Start a netraiser team. Save a life one net at a time.

Support the Medicare Informed Choice Act

Contact your members of Congress this week and ask them to protect the wellbeing of seniors and the disability community by extending the deadline to sign up for prescription drug coverage. The Chai Impact Legislative Action Center tells you how.

Cover the Uninsured Week: April 23-29, 2007

Do you think children's health coverage is important? Support CTUW from April 23 thru April 29, 2007

Cover the Uninsured Week (CTUW) is a national effort that places the spotlight squarely on the millions of Americans living without health insurance. This year, CTUW, which takes place April 23-April 29 and is sponsored by numerous national organizations, including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, is supporting the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover kids whose parents work but can't afford health insurance for their children. Cover the Uninsured Week's website provides the tools to promote activities that will take place across the country and explains how to let Congress know that voting in health care for children has to be on the top of their lists.

Jewish Values and Health Care

From RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER

Our tradition teaches us that human life is of infinite value and that the preservation of life supersedes almost all other considerations. We, as Jews, believe that God endowed humanity with the understanding and ability to become partners with God in making a better world. The use of our wisdom to cure illnesses has been a central theme in Jewish thought and history.

Providing health care is not just an obligation for the patient and the doctor, but for society as well. It is for this reason that Maimonides, a revered Jewish scholar, listed health care first on his list of the ten most important communal services that a city had to offer to its residents (Mishneh Torah, Hilchot De'ot IV:23). Almost all self-governing Jewish communities throughout history set up systems to ensure that all their citizens had access to health care. Doctors were required to reduce their rates for poor patients, and when that was not sufficient, communal subsidies were established (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 249:16; Responsa Ramat Rahel of Rabbi Eliezer Waldernberg, sections 24-25.)

The Union for Reform Judaism has consistently supported universal health care coverage. A 1975 URJ Resolution on "Health Care and Health Insurance" called for a "national comprehensive prepaid single benefit standard health insurance with no deductible, to cover prevention, treatment and rehabilitation in all fields of health care." Similarly, in a 1976 resolution, the Central Conference of American Rabbis called on Congress to "enact a comprehensive national health insurance program."