Compassion Concerning Healthcare
I went to the doctor yesterday for a routine phsyical. I was in the office for about 45 minutes and overheard two conversations between very stressed out, uninsured individuals trying to walk the desperate line between finances and health.
The first lady was very concerned and hovering over the office manager when I came in. She had had a routine physical and an EKG but was uninsured, so she was setting up an installment plan to pay for the two services. Two routine services.
The second lady called in and spoke with one of the doctors, very upset that her prescription had run out. The doctor said that they had strung out the daily prescription for as long as possible, and that since it had been a year to the date since her last visit she would have to come in and see the doctor. The scenario playing out was that the woman was taking a daily medication for some ailment, but she couldn’t come in and incur the cost of all the additional services that would come along with a simple doctor visit (EKG, blood work, etc.).
My heart really went out to these people. It must be such a state of helplessness. I was wondering what I could do, and I thought support health care reform, but that is just kind of business as usual and simply pathetic. We cannot continue to try to legislate Christian action through secular politics.
So what can a Christian do?
8 Comments
Submit a Comment
SUBSCRIBE:
I Support
I’ve wondered about that and often felt frustrated about my inability. Unfortunately, the culture of health insulation (a more accurate term than “insurance”) has allowed prices to rise so high that it is simply not feasible for a church to simply share medical expenses. One problem is that the necessity of certain procedures is questionable–do I really need this test? If I’m not paying for it, of course I do! If I am, then–eh, maybe not. The rationing that naturally occurs within a market is difficult, partly because we don’t have a market for health care, and partly because most consumers don’t have expert knowledge of which services are necessary and which are borderline or frivolous.
From what I’ve read, the problem seems to go back to WWII when wages were frozen by gov’t; employers improved fringe benefits to entice workers. After the war these benefits stayed and (this is key) became tax exempt. If congress made taxable fringe benefits offered by employers–retirement, health insurance–and instead passed on that value as an income tax credit, we would see more of a market for insurance plans, particularly cheaper plans with high deductables and catastrophic coverage (think SafeAuto). Congress should also do its job according to the Constitution and “regulate” (i.e., “make regular”) trade between the states by forcing states to allow the purchase of health insurance policies across state lines.
The problem is we’ve had a race to the top of the industry and no variegation in coverage and price. Now those who have insurance pay nothing (so they think) and use too much and those who don’t have insurance are sunk.
So, back to the original question, Thomas: I don’t think we can do much, except pray, help individuals find jobs with insurance, and lobby our public officials to loosen some of these chokeholds on the industry.
What a downer.
Syntactical correction:
“If congress made fringe benefits offered by employers–retirement, health insurance–taxable, and instead…”
What can a Christian do? As Christians we are all asked or called to follow Jesus who healed the sick and raised the dead. He did not argue for health care or charitable giving. He showed that there is nothing our holiness or love cannot do. He would still say to us, “oh ye of little faith”, I guess. Our problem is that we identify with an image of ourselves that is not true. We are not images, and nothing can hurt or separate us from the love of God. Therefore, we cannot be sick. Our imagined sickness is our defense against the truth. Forgiveness is the answer to it all. Through forgiveness we see our brothers as perfect as God created them.
I do believe Jesus argued several times for charitable giving. Certainly his disciples followed this practice in the early church by holding property in common and giving to widows and orphans.
Further, when I am sick it is because a virus has entered my body, not because I am defending against truth. I don’t understand what you mean by that. Most sickness, while it can be brought on by stress or psychological problems, is caused by physical microorganisms entering our body.
It is a great quagmire isn’t it. I tend to lean toward your economic reasoning and the skepticism and call to prayer that comes out of it. There is not much else we can do except help those who are around us, focus on that, and let that which we personally cannot control, the political and economic structures of this world, run the course they choose.
All teaching of Jesus was directed to offer a vision of and help us experience who we are as God’s creations and children. In our human understanding of who we are we deny that truth. Because we are not images/bodies, we can’t be sick. The belief that we are bodies is what sickness is. Of course, Jesus did not say, don’t give to the poor, or don’t go the extra mile, because dedication to our brothers helps us all, and God only gives. But still, his emphasis was that we are not of this world and that we be perfect as God is perfect and created us.
Alban, you said: "Because we are not images/bodies, we can’t be sick."
This goes against the central narrative of Genesis, which says God created man and woman in his own image.
Further, the incarnation or "in body-ness" of Christ is central to the orthodox Christian faith, for the Nicene Creed declares that Christ "came
down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin
Mary, and was made man."
This creedal statement rests firmly on the teachings of the gospel writers, Paul, Peter, and the other apostles who affirm the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
To deny the body is to be gnostic, an ancient heresy of orthodox Christianity. And that’s okay, Alban, if those are the beliefs you share on this blog. Just know that I am coming from the standpoint of orthodox Christianity.
I hear you, Thomas. However, I would doubt very much that you would say that according to Genesis God must be a body because you seem to be one. If God is spirit than you must be spirit if you were created in His image and likeness. This means you cannot be a body, however much it seems to be the contrary, because you cannot make yourself to be unlike God created you. This would give you a power greater than God’s which is impossible. This also accounts for the fact that our wildest ideas and deeds or sins still cannot change our nature. We are as God created us. The mere fact that there is even talk of an image in regard to God stems from man’s inability to conceive God other than what he himself believes about himself. I am also reminded that the teachings of the Prophets in the Old Testament were directing people to abstain from making an image of God which was considered idolatrous. This does not speak for your narrative.
Regarding the incarnation of Christ I say this: What good would a savior be if he came in a form other than man’s form? Man would not even recognize nor be able to listen to him. This does not deny the resurrection. On the contrary, everything has to be included in the plan for salvation, therefore, the resurrection is a central part of it, because it is impossible to transcend the body, or leave it behind, and be saved, because man thinks he is a body. This is the basis of his whole experience as man. He truly believes he can be, and is, separated from the love of God. This is insanity, but that is why there is a plan of salvation. Thank God, that it is already accomplished, and man’s return to Heaven is inevitable, meaning that man will come to know himself as he really is.