As a hospital chaplain, I sat with a young couple in the early hours of the morning as they took their newborn infant off life support due to undeveloped lungs. They did not have insurance and had had very little prenatal care.

Health care for all is not a political issue, it is a justice issue. For Christians, Jesus did not spend much time with those who had a lot. Instead, he fed the multitudes and healed the outcasts, the lame, the blind, the infirm - those who had the least.

Social Security is insurance we pay to the government to guarantee some income later in life. People have been getting their checks for decades, and the government has not told them how to spend their money. Why would it be different with a public option health insurance plan? A public option would not be mandatory. Our legislators, if they work together, can guarantee that for those who are afraid of a single-payer plan. But it would allow those who cannot afford insurance premiums some health coverage so that no young couple has to watch their newborn die in their arms for lack of health insurance.

the rev. Barbara E. Blom

Ithaca