Jesus once said, "the poor will always be with you." Samuel Johnson pointed out the social and moral consequences of the ever-present poor: "A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization." In the United States, we do not provide well for the impoverished among us, especially in the realm of health care. Lack of access to our profit-driven system effectively bars more than 40 million Americans from reliable, timely, and decent health care. How can this be?

Economist Ewe Reinhardt provides an honest, straightforward answer: "The nation's manifest impotence in this area reflects an inability to agree on the ethical precepts to govern the production and distribution of health care." In other words, at present there is no moral consensus—and thus no political will—which can guide the American healthcare system to higher moral ground.

The issue, then, is not money; it is values. Our culture is simply not receptive to addressing the healthcare needs of the poor or near-poor. As Coretta Scott King said recently: "We could provide basic healthcare coverage for half a million people for the cost of a B-2 bomber." Indeed, we might need B-2 bombers, but the decency of our civilization does not depend upon them.

Widespread neglect of the poorest among us is simply not consistent with the American people's good character. We can and will restructure our healthcare system. But first we must give substantially more attention to identifying foundational values and then building a broad ethical infrastructure that will support needed reforms.

The world's religious traditions harbor many of these foundational values and offer fresh perspectives that might energize genuine healthcare reform. We should freely turn to these precious resources. Within the Roman Catholic tradition, for example, we find the "preferential option for the poor." This simple but profound precept is often misunderstood. Sometimes it has been associated with a Marxist vision that encourages violent revolution. Other times, the preferential option has been taken as a put-down of the wealthy.

Yet it is neither Marxist nor classist. It constitutes a call to all classes to cooperate in building a just society by attempting to overcome gross disparities between persons and even nations in terms of power, education, and opportunities, as well as income.

Religious faith and teaching can be very suggestive as we debate important public issues like health care. Each of us can and should explore and exploit our own religious tradition as we struggle to be good citizens. This country's church-state wall of separation does regulate certain public actions; but is does not reach into our personal lives, where we discover the values that we bring to the public square.

Belief in the timely emergence of a renewed and just healthcare system in the United States requires a genuine act of faith and the willingness of the faithful to act. The poor may always be with us, but decency demands that their basic human needs be addressed, even if not completely met. Jesus may have been right, but surely Dr. Johnson had a point.