Pope Leo, From A U.S. Without Universal Healthcare, Calls It A ‘Moral Imperative’
www.huffpost.com
Pope Leo called it a “moral imperative” that people have access to the health services they need.
  • Darkard@lemmy.worldEnglish
    202·
    17 days ago

    American Christians: “Oh my god! The pope is a commie socialist woke antifa!”

    • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      86·
      17 days ago

      Among evangelical hardliners it’s not an uncommon belief that the Pope is the Anti Christ, so…

    • Beacon@fedia.io
      35·
      16 days ago

      For many christians, “christianity” is a social club they strongly belong to, not an actual religion. They don’t give a fuck about what the bible is actually trying to convey, they just use the bible as a tackboard to pin their own beliefs and desires onto.

    • BigBenis@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      16 days ago

      I suspect you think you’re being satirical but as an American myself, I can guarantee there’s a significant amount of Americana saying exactly this.

    • Cliff@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      16 days ago

      Many Christians: “Oh my god! This Jesus was a commie socialist woke antifa!”

  • Stupidmanager@lemmy.worldEnglish
    56·
    17 days ago

    Sorry Pope, there’s no money in that. Signed - insurance companies and Donald j Trump (because he likes his name in everything)

  • Quilotoa@lemmy.caEnglish
    46·
    16 days ago

    That’s rather pointed as there is only one first world country that does not have universal healthcare.

    • MisterFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      15 days ago

      Sort of. A lot of us (countries) have some kind of public healthcare, but it’s not really universal.

      From experience in Australia: dental isn’t included, physio is limited, out of pocket costs can be large for non-hospital visits because it’s not a public system just a private subsidy model (mostly), wait times for “elective” surgery can be way, way longer on the public system because private health is permitted to exist and the public system is underfunded/understaffed.

      What’s worse is that private health cover is allowed to just cover the difference between public and private, meaning even if you go private, the public is still paying. Like, you wanna be private, fuck off and go be private then… (Talking to the private healthcare advocates, not the people. I have some level of private healthcare cover, even though I think it’s a fucking stupid system)

      List goes on.

      It’s WAY better than the US, but I refuse to call it universal.

  • Drusas@fedia.io
    32·
    16 days ago

    As an American, he would be familiar with the consequences of not having it.

  • Devolution@lemmy.worldEnglish
    123·
    16 days ago

    Conservatives: He thinks darkies and wage slaves should have universal health care! Hes the antichrist!!!

    Peter Thiel: I know. 😈

    • Aatube@kbin.melroy.orgM
      8·
      16 days ago

      protestants, including evangelicals, are not catholics and do not follow the pope

      According to a 2024 Gallup survey, approximately 69% of the U.S. population—about 235 million out of 340 million people—identify as Christian.[1] A plurality of Americans identify as Protestant (45%), followed by Catholics (22%). Smaller Christian groups include members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1.5%), Eastern Orthodox Christians (0.5%), and other Christian denominations (0.4%).[1]

  • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    16 days ago

    I wonder how many countries’ healthcare the Vatican hoard could fund in perpetuity. The number is greater than one.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      16 days ago

      I was actually surprised to find out LDS (mormons) are several times wealthier than the Catholic Church on paper.

      Their total revenue is around $30 billion a year. They could, in theory, pay for an entire states medical costs like Utah that spends about $18 billion a year.

      Spefically pointed to your comment though, the Catholic Church is already the biggest private healthcare provider in the world. It operates roughly twenty percent of healthcare facilities in the world.

      • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        16 days ago

        Those are great points. What payment model do the Catholic hospitals usually use? Free to everyone? Or are they operating the hospitals but only under whatever insurance or government coverage exists? I’m sure it varies around the world but I’m curious about the US especially. I think I was born in a Catholic founded hospital. But it seems like they are just the care provider and not so much the funding provider. The world “healthcare” has two meanings in this way.

        • Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          15 days ago

          Yes, they do not pay all the costs. Often times they will write off debts or provide care for free. This is not always the case though. Typically they are funded like a for profit hospital with the major difference being there are no shareholders to take the profit.

          I have heard estimates that they subsidize $60 billion a year in healthcare costs across the US.

          I was trying to get a clearer picture of how many countries the Catholic Church could fund annually but estimating their money is very complicated. They are not centralized like the Mormon church and all their churches operate independently.

          With estimates as high as $2 trillion of total revenue, in theory, they could pay for several European countries. But not something like the whole US that spends $5.3 trillion on healthcare.

          I think this also touches on just general criticism of the Catholic church. Are they really good stewards of their money, is corruption a problem, etc. I have read a lot of conflicting information on these topics.

        • Maeve@kbin.earth
          1·
          16 days ago

          Catholic hospitals are private in the US, unless specifically otherwise designated. You can pull up the public finance records to see how revenue is spent, to the best of my knowledge.