This is a guest opinion column

Roughly five million people live in Alabama, over 200,000 of whom fall into what’s known as the health coverage gap – making too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to be able to afford private insurance.

Our healthcare access gap has caused a public health care crisis for our state. Simply having health insurance is one of the leading indicators of survivorship against cancer and other chronic illnesses. Having no option for affordable healthcare leaves our fellow neighbors with nowhere to go for care when they’re sick and especially affects the most vulnerable among us.

Ensuring adequate, affordable access to healthcare would alleviate such individual and collective struggle. It’s also a policy solution that, for many people of faith like myself, is not a partisan, political issue but a moral justice imperative.

The cumulative weight of sacred scripture – across all major religions – calls us to work for more just and equal access to the basic human rights of nutrition, adequate housing, education, and, in this case, healthcare, for all of our neighbors.

It’s why many people of faith see Medicaid expansion through that moral justice lens. Leviticus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves; Micah tells us that to be able to humbly walk with God requires justice; the Quaran reminds us that true righteousness is to care for those who are living in poverty; and the Bhagavad Gita calls us to live lives of compassion.

Our sacred scriptures of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism are clear in calling people of all faiths to stand in solidarity with our neighbors who live on the hard edges of life.

It’s why so many people of good faith, from all faiths, are leading the cause to call upon our public servants today to expand Medicaid. Advocating to expand just access to healthcare is one of the most pressing impactful and meaningful ways we can actively live lives of practical, human compassion at this point in time.

I pray our state lawmakers are led to feel the same calling to support such a critical, lifesaving issue in the same way.

Chuck Poole is a retired pastor who has led congregations across Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Washington, D.C. and is an advocate for interfaith conversation and welcome. Chuck currently resides in Birmingham with his wife Marcia and is a grandfather of ten and father of two adult children.