As students leave campus for spring break this weekend, various congregations and parishioners from all faiths will take part in the Champaign for Better Health Care’s 2011 Sound the Alarm program, according to a press release.
According to the press release, participants are rallying around the theme of “Inform, Implement, Improve” in order to celebrate next week’s anniversary of the federal health care reform law being passed.
The program also brings attention to the fact that 1.8 million uninsured people in Illinois are still at risk until there is implementation of the health care law, according to the press release.
During worship services, more than 400 congregations throughout the state of Illinois will pause and pray for the implementation of the provisions in the federal health care law and to those still suffering because of the health care crisis, according to the press release.
Along with the prayer, the weekend’s events include: discussions about the impacts of health care in the economy and opportunities for people and sharing personal health care stories, according to the press release. Participants can also send “Celebration Postcards” to Illinois politicians, reading scripture about the power of healing and justice and sounding a horn, bell, or Shofar (a horn used for Jewish religious purposes) 18 times during service.
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“Equal access to health care is not only a socio-economic issue, but also a moral issue whose impact is felt strongly within our communities and congregations,” said the Rev. Larry Greenfield, Chair of the Faith Caucus, Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago, and Theologian-in-Residence/Editor at Protestants for the Common Good in the press release.
Greenfield added that implementing the Affordable Care Act in Illinois would bring a just health care system.
“Together, we call upon our elected officials of Illinois to accept the moral imperative of providing health care security for all,” he said in the press release.
The program is a way to bring awareness that everyone needs health care, said Rabbi Michael Zedek, Senior Rabbi of Emanuel Congregation of Chicago, in the press release.
“The poor, the marginalized, the vulnerable, and the elderly suffer first, the longest, and the most intense in a health crisis. Sound the Alarm is a way for local faith communities to confront the injustices and inequalities in our health care system,” Zedek added.
Furthermore, being unable to afford necessary health care is an added burden to families, said Sh. Kifah A. Mustapha, Imam and the Associate Director of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, IL, Chairman of the Illinois Council of Imams and Scholars, and President for the Shura of Islamic Family Counselors of America in the press release.
“(These families) struggle to save their homes and to pay for food, and the stress of not having health care adds to their everyday burden,” Kifah said in the press release.
