After Pope is re-operated, Reuters is backing universal free health care

By Philip Pullella and Giulia Segreti

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Francis, who appears to be in good general condition, appeared in public on Sunday after undergoing bowel surgery a week ago and called for free universal health care.

The 84-year-old pope, who underwent surgery on part of his colon, stepped out onto the balcony of his suite on the 10th floor of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital before cheering on hundreds of people below to address the weekly prayer.

He was there for about 10 minutes, reading from a prepared text but also added a number of impromptu notes.

Sometimes he seemed to be short of breath and his voice was rough at times. He was removed from his lung when he was young in Argentina when he was young.

Hundreds of people gathered in the open space below to shout “Viva il Papa!” They shouted. (Long live the Pope) and waving national flags. Doctors and patients were placed on other balconies facing each other.

For the most part in his impromptu part of the lecture, Francis said that good health should be for all and free.

“These days I’ve been in the hospital, I saw again how important it is to have a good health system that is accessible to everyone, just like it is in Italy and other countries,” he said.

“A free health service that will ensure a good service available to all … That precious good must not be lost. It must be maintained and everyone must commit to this. Because everyone needs it …” he said.

Health is a major political problem in the United States, one of the few industrialized countries that does not have universal coverage for its citizens.

According to the World Health Organization, universal health coverage means that everyone needs access to health services without financial hardship.

CHILDREN WITH THE POPE

Several sick children in the hospital appeared with the pope on the balcony. “It’s a question that touches the heart of why children have to suffer,” he said.

Since he was elected pope in 2013, Francis had not read Sunday prayer and read the message from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, which he hoped he was traveling.

Francis criticized the managers of hospitals run by the Church, whose first thought, he said, is to close when he is hit by economic hardship.

“Your vocation as a church is not to have money, it is to be of service and service is always free,” he said in part of the unprepared notes.

Before concluding with his last traditional note, “Have a good lunch and see you goodbye again,” Francis called for an end to the “spiral of violence” in Haiti that killed President Jovenel Moise on Wednesday.

The Vatican did not issue a medical bulletin on Sunday. He said on Saturday that the pope was still in full normalcy, gradually working again, eating and eating with his helpers and his blood tests were satisfactory.

Doctors had initially planned a seven-day hospital stay for the pope, but there was no indication when he would be discharged.