Catholic healthcare ministry's key role in healthcare reform.

WHY HEALTHCARE REFORM IS REAL Heal thcare reform is being driven by four economic and social forces, the most potent of which is the rapidly rising cost of healthcare. At current rates of growth, it is predicted that in six years the annual healthcare costs for a family of four will be $30,000—more than the family will spend on food, housing, transportat ion, and clothing combined. These costs are creating substantial economic burdens for every segment of our society, from the business community and various levels of gove rnmen t to heal thcare providers and individual Americans. Many of our not-for-profit organizations—including our own parishes, schools, and charities—are increasingly burdened by the cost of providing health insurance to their employees. Another factor undermining our healthcare system is the deterioration of private health insurance markets. Almost all private insurers today compete on the basis of risk selection (i.e., they attempt to pre-identify the people who are likely to be frequent users of healthcare services and systematically exclude them from the benefits of health insurance). The so-called cost shift is also destabilizing the healthcare system. Hospitals and doctors have traditionally recouped the cost of charity care and shortfalls in government healthcare program payments by passing the losses along to the privately insured. As the number of uninsured and the amount of government shortfalls have increased, however, so has the size of the cost shift. Many employers resent this practice because it is pushing premium payments up much faster than they would otherwise be increasing. Sf, Coreil is senior