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Editorials
Monday, October 2, 2000Health insurance
must be provided for allThe issue: Hawaii has seen an increase in the proportion of its population lacking medical insurance.
PHYSICAL health and economic health are obviously different, but related. A healthy economy should indicate that more money is available to spend on health.
Hawaii's stagnant economy for most of the 1990s had a lot to do with a reduction in the proportion of the population that was protected by medical insurance. Meanwhile the economic boom on the mainland resulted in an increase in the proportion with medical insurance -- for the first time since the Census Bureau began compiling the data in 1987.
In 1999, 11.1 percent of Hawaii's population had no medical insurance, an increase from 10 percent in 1998 and 7.5 percent in 1997. On the mainland, 15.5 percent lacked medical insurance last year, compared with 16.3 percent in 1998.
Hawaii was one of 16 states that had higher numbers of medically uninsured people in 1999. But state Human Services Director Susan Chandler pointed out that Hawaii is still the No. 1 state in coverage. Chandler noted that the situation is improving as more people are employed and working longer hours, thereby qualifying for employer health benefits.
Hawaii's pioneering law requiring employers to provide health insurance made the state a leader in this field. The federal Children's Health Insurance Program, enacted in 1997 to help low-income families, extended insurance protection further. The state Legislature provided another $1 million last year for the medically uninsured.
Alvin Onaka, acting chief of the state Office of Health Status Monitoring, observed that since Hawaii did not participate in the mainland boom until recently, "one wouldn't expect a large decline in our uninsured." However, the increase is a sign that more remains to be done to move closer to universal health coverage in the islands.
THE failure of President Clinton's ill-conceived comprehensive health insurance proposal has left reformers taking a piecemeal approach to the problem of extending coverage. This seems more sensible, because a large majority of Americans are already insured. The need is to plug the gaps in the system, not to create an entirely new one. But the goal remains to insure everyone.
China attacks Vatican
over Catholic martyrs
ANY hope that the Chinese government was mellowing on human rights should be dashed by its attack on the Roman Catholic Church for its decision to canonize 120 Catholics who were killed in China before 1930. These include 87 Chinese and 33 European missionaries. Many died during Chinese conflicts with European powers in the 19th century.
Although the Vatican considers the prospective saints martyrs, a spokesman for the Beijing regime charged that many had "committed monstrous crimes against the Chinese people."
The Vatican did not include any Catholics killed under Communist rule among those to be canonized, apparently to avoid provoking Beijing. If that was the intention, it didn't work.
The Chinese government was said to be further angered because the canonization ceremony was held yesterday, the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. But Vatican officials said the date was selected because it is the feast of the patron saint of missions, St. Theresa of Lisieux.
Catholics in China have been divided since Beijing and the Vatican severed diplomatic ties in 1951, shortly after the Communist victory. There is an officially sanctioned Patriotic Catholic Church, which does not accept the authority of Pope John Paul II. But millions of Chinese are believed to belong to a parallel illegal church that remains loyal to the pope.
The New York Times reported that a high-ranking Vatican official, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, recently visited Beijing. On his return to Rome he said he had protested vigorously against a new wave of arrests of Catholics, even of bishops, that took place during his visit, in what appeared to be a gesture of defiance toward the Vatican. One of those reportedly arrested was an 81-year-old bishop who has spent more than 30 years in jail.
The regime has issued new restrictive regulations governing the religious activities of foreigners. Henceforth, foreigners may preach in a church only with government permission. They are otherwise forbidden to promote their religious beliefs, distribute religious materials or otherwise engage in missionary work.
IN addition, for the past year the regime has been cracking down fiercely on the Falun Gong sect, which embraces traditional Chinese beliefs and appears to have a huge following. Beijing also continues to treat the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, as a pariah because he refuses to submit to Communist control, and to suppress Tibetan Buddhism.
If China hopes to be accepted fully in the family of nations, the government will have to display far more tolerance of religious faith than it currently does.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
