Cover the Uninsured Week

Cover the Uninsured Week, as described by an April 23rd Santa Cruz Sentinel article, falls between April 23rd and the 29th. This year landmarks the fifth annual weeklong effort to address the issue of over 45 million uninsured Americans, and Dominican Hospital and Sutter Santa Cruz both made $25,000 contributions to an insurance program called Healthy Kids in celebration of the occasion. Healthy Kids provides insurance to children whose families would otherwise be unable to afford coverage. As it costs $2.6 million per year to cover 2,000 Santa Cruz children and at least 100 additional children’s names are on a waiting list, $50,000 is a fairly substantial contribution.


An issue with Cover the Uninsured Week and Healthy Kids, however, is that they focus mostly (or entirely, in Healthy Kids’ case) on uninsured children rather than uninsured people. Clearly, children need adequate medical attention – especially in earlier years – in order to grow up and become healthy members of society. Who are we to say, though, that uninsured adults aren’t necessarily in dire enough need of medical help to be granted health insurance? Equal attention must be paid to all individuals, as each possesses human dignity and worth and deserves access to resources that fulfill her or his basic needs.


Why are two private organizations – Dominican Hospital and Sutter Santa Cruz – contributing finances to a cause that is worthy of more public attention? We need to reevaluate our government’s budgeting and question the nonexistence of universal health care.