2009-08 Aug 26 Trinity Healthcare Reform Forum

Testimony Given at:
Health Care Reform Community Action Meeting,
Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento, California
August 26, 2009

Good evening.

My name is Carol Frances Milazzo. I am a member of Trinity Cathedral and I share this story from my perspective as a person of faith and a medical doctor serving children and adolescents and their families since 1980.

For the past 10 years my staff and I have been working in a small bilingual private practice in Roseville where we serve several thousand families in Placer and Sacramento counties and beyond. We daily witness the struggle at the front lines in this health care crisis. Most of those we serve are low-income families, including immigrants, many Latinos, like my mother when she moved from Puerto Rico to New York City 60 years ago.

Increasing numbers of our neighbors are falling victim to this economy. We see families who had once lived comfortably and are now newly unemployed and underemployed and unable to afford health care, not even COBRA premiums. Some bring disabled children and youths. Some may have Medi-Cal and Healthy Families—programs that are reducing covered services and turning away the increasing numbers of new applicants.

In our Christian tradition, we are called to love our Creator above all things and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

I relate stories of parents who bring me their malnourished child who cannot chew his food because his teeth are rotten and they cannot afford dental care—other parents who despair because needed mental health services are not available for their autistic child. I feel the pain and despair of these parents when I tell them that we have nothing to offer them.

I see the need for education when I asked a fellow church member his views on health care reform and he replied "Oh, I don't need that. I am happy with the health insurance I already have." I feel shame when a colleague tells me that health care reform is a political conspiracy to deprive him of his freedom and individual wealth.

Jesus taught us, "Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for Me. Whatever you neglected to do for the least of these, you neglected to do for Me."

Those who incite anger to disrupt this dialogue and to maintain the status quo choose to ignore the growing suffering of our brothers and sisters.

It is immoral for us to turn a deaf ear to the cries of our suffering brothers and sisters.

It is immoral for us to oppose reform for affordable and accessible health care for all.

I urge us all to carry this message to our friends, families, neighbors, co-workers, and to our elected representatives to pass health care reform for universal, affordable and accessible health care coverage now.

God bless you and Dios les bendiga.

Carol Frances Milazzo, MD
Fellow, American Academy of Pediatrics
Member, Sacramento Area Congregations Together

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• PICO
• ACT
• Healthcare
• Reform

[kalmanlyman]

Thanks for posting this Dr. M.