The time is now to address the uninsured in America

The election is over and Barack Obama, our new president, along with Congress, faces some of the biggest challenges witnessed since the depression of the 1930s.

Major banks, auto companies and small businesses are closing, downsizing or asking for government bailouts. Americans are losing their homes, as foreclosure rates are reaching unprecedented numbers. Health care insurance and benefits are diminishing, while health care premiums and costs continue to rise.

As many companies try to ride out the downward spiral into economic recession, those surviving are searching for better ways of doing business. So, too, they are faced with the dilemma of how best to insure their employees, yet still keep from going bottom-up.

Further, there are those less fortunate who fall into the categories of underinsured (working poor with no health benefits) or the uninsured. The alarming number of uninsured in the United States has risen to a record 47 million Americans, among them 9 million children. If the economy continues to worsen, these numbers undoubtedly will reach staggering heights.

Through the years, our government and Congress have discussed, debated and instituted numerous changes to the delivery of health care. What has resulted is ineffective leadership and utter lack of understanding across-the-board -- from local to state to national levels of government.

In the meantime, health insurance premiums have increased as much as 10 times faster than income levels in recent years. As the balance tips and fewer people can pay their premiums, they suddenly find themselves among the rising numbers of the uninsured.

During this past election, we were seeing more and more vocal Americans who viewed the economy and the need to improve access to health care as closely linked. They believed making health care more affordable should be a top priority for improving the U.S. economy.

Therefore, it is not an understatement to say it is a crucial time for a new president -- and Congress -- to make a strong and committed stand to address this social catastrophe.

As president of a Catholic faith-based hospital sponsored by the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services, it is our mission to care for the ill and disadvantaged. We do it every day. Our nurses, doctors, allied health professionals and other ancillary personnel see nothing complicated about it. They simply see it, as the cliché states, as "helping your fellow man."

I hope our new president and the new Congress will step up and see it the same way -- without a "political" agenda, but instead make it a "compassionate" agenda that provides everyone with affordable coverage and timely access as well.

We can wait no longer. The time to address the health care question is now.

David Ruskowski is president of St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point, affiliated with the northern Indiana region hospitals of the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Inc.