The spiraling health care costs for businesses are small potatoes compared to the demographic tsunami that will be coming ashore when a new wave of children comes of age in 2010, according to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Sen. Wyden was one of several speakers on health care policy and legislation at an April 8-9 conference on health care in Washington, D.C. “Waging Reconciliation: An Episcopal Response to Healthcare Barriers,” was organized by the office of the Rt. Rev. George E. Packard, Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies, in response to resolution A079 of the last General Convention.

That resolution calls for an association of Episcopalians in health care to advocate for a system in which all may be guaranteed decent primary care. More than 80 Episcopalians from around the country, including Alaska and Puerto Rico, joined to address the reality that 41 million people in this country are without access to health care.