CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING AND HEALTH CARE FOR ALL

Over 47 million Americans find themselves without health insurance in the richest and most Christian nation in the world. Catholic Social Teaching views this situation as an unjust violation of a basic human right to medical care, arguing that all persons have the right to those goods and services necessary for the proper development of life. In making this claim, Catholic Social Teaching advances three biblical principles: (1) that all persons are sacred and social, (2) that God hears the cries of the poor, and (3) that believers are directed to make a preferential option for the poor. In addition, Catholic Social thought argues that the right to health care finds support in the philosophical principles of subsidiarity, distributive justice, and the universal purpose of created goods