Health-care reform spurs 3 rallies

A coalition of area church leaders echoed a nationwide faith-based call Wednesday for government leaders to take care of the poor first as they go about reforming the country's health-care system.

Representatives from 17 different religious organizations in Utah joined 40 such groups around the country who are rallying and praying this week for justice and equal health care for all.

President Barack Obama and Congress could go a long way toward having the prayer answered by expanding qualifications for Medicaid, the joint state/federal insurance plan for the poor, to everyone under the federal poverty level regardless of age, ability or parental status, members of the Utah Coalition of Religious Communities said.

The coalition-led prayer was one of three rallies around health-care reform Wednesday. The other two are opposed to the proposed reforms, however, with one protesting ABC News for airing a prime time special with Obama. The president has warned changes are needed because the ripple effect of not reforming health care and the medical insurance industry will not only fuel the soaring cost of care but could bankrupt Medicaid and Medicare.

Nearly 200 people outside the ABC 4 news building on Salt Lake City's west side waved protest signs against Obama's nationalized health-care reform plan and the unopposed broadcast which they called a biased form of journalism.

Green stickers on the shirts of peaceful protesters showed their support of Iranian protesters fighting for freedom, which 64-year-old Karen Frei said is the same thing many Americans want as well.

"The government can't do anything better than the private sector," Frei said. "It was private enterprise that made this country great."

Frei, like many of her fellow senior citizens, demonstrated out of concern for the future of American health care and how "older folk" will manage.

"We feel like it's a death sentence for older people," she said.

Earlier in the day, religious coalition members said the current market-driven system can't be counted on to do the right thing, which is why 300,000 Utahns and the 47 million Americans nationwide are without insurance. If it were working, businesses wouldn't be dropping coverage right and left for their employees, and Americans wouldn't be spending $2.4 trillion a year on medical care.