This running conversation has been going through my head lately. ( Relax, I told my doctor about it. )
I have some friends in my neighborhood who do not have any health insurance. I have a lot of friends who do not have health insurance. They are educated people with jobs, people who work very hard and live very frugally, people who pay their tithes and pay their taxes, pay their rent and pay their mortgage, people who are active in their churches and spend more than their fair share of time and resources with and for the poor.
They just cannot afford to get sick or to go to the doctor to keep from getting sick. Neither can their children. They are an accident or illness away from losing everything.
So in my head I have been listening to and talking with various and sundry of my friends up and down the pew about the predicament my friends are in, about how we the people, especially the portion of we the people that claim to be the Body of Christ, might bring some of our collective resources to bear on such circumstances.
Some of my friends on the pew say that they do not want the government to help provide health care for these people because it seems socialist, and socialist is code for communist and communist is code for godless, and helping folks with their health care is a slippery slope we do not want to go down. They seem to suggest the word socialist only applies to the notion of a public option for health care these days. They are reasonably certain that the word does not apply to their Medicare benefits or their veterans' benefits or the health care provided for government employees. It does not seem to apply to schools, road construction, or Pell Grants, for that matter.
Some other of my friends along the pew say that they do no want any of their tax dollars to help pay for health care for people who currently have no health care, no matter how the circumstance came about. They do not know who pays when such folks have to go to the emergency room or stay in a public hospital for an extended period. They seem to think it is some other poor soul whose insurance premiums are increasing and whose taxes are eaten up when such things happen.
Some other friends say we the people cannot afford to do such a thing, the deficits will be too high and our children will have to pay. They do believe in deficits for wars, deficits for road construction, deficits for bank bailouts, aid to Israel but not Africa, and deficits for college tuition assistance, as well as for some other stuff.
In my running conversation I have been going back to my insurance-less friends and telling them it will all be okay.
I tell them that all these people up and down the pew are listening to the same Gospel we are — the one where the second commandment is to love your neighbor, like you love your own soul. The Gospel they may even hear some day, and then do something about.
I also remind them to be careful crossing the street, to wash their hands often, and whatever they do, do not go for a checkup.
12 comments:
Ok, this is a great post. Thank you for speaking out. We know many wonderful people who are not able to be insured or cannot afford it. It concerns me that folks are very vocal against a public health care system and yet seem to ignore the ones who need the help. I wonder how many yellers have been on the other end of the leash--unable to get the help they or their loved ones need. I do not agree with many of the President's policies, but I commend him for tackling this difficult, but necessary health care problem.
Thank you for this word, Robert, this calm, clear, and challenging word about this issue. This health care debate I find confusing and disheartening. Thank you for some clarification on what the debate ultimately is about - and what topics we are careful NOT to touch upon during these discussions.
Lord, please forgive us.
And please continue to have mercy upon us all.
Thanks for reading and for taking the time to leave a note.
Stay in touch.
R. Benson
SUSAN — Thank you for reading us in the first place and for your comment. I think you point to something important here — that the health care issue transcends, or should, other policy disagreements. When lives and livelihoods are at stake, we the people must set aside some of our differences and seek common ground.
Stay in touch.
NAMASTE —
R. Benson
Oh, wow, Ben- this leaves my heart touched and my voice speechless. You took the words right out of my heart. My life has left a LOT of room for grace. For this I am very grateful.
KR
This is, indeed, a challenging problem that brings countless issues to the surface. You're friends without insurance seem to be great people, I wonder if people who give the way they give would condone our government using force to take money from someone else in order to pay for their Dr. visits. I doubt it. Are we going to ask the government to do what the Church should be doing? I don't think anyone, especially in America, should die for lack of medical care or choose between food and medicine, I just don't think the government is the answer. I think a properly functioning Church is.
I have read the blog and you have many good points. I, too, have friends with no insurance, but they choose to spend their monies in other ways or "self-insure" much as many folks choose not to purchase warranty insurance for appliances.
Medicare benefits are helpful in ways, but have gaps requiring purchasing gap insurance. And if nursing home care is needed, then one has to be penniless to get help and must have given any inheritance to their children x number of years previous. So it is not helpful for those who have worked and saved for their retirement and cannot know that they will suddenly have a stroke that throws them into a nursing home. And since Medicare doesn't pay the nursing home adequately to cover costs, if you're there on Medicare, you frequently get less care.
Christ tells us to care for our neighbor, but my Bible doesn't say that He suggested that we leave the job to Rome to do and tax us to pay for it. Perhaps Christians should meet the need and raise monies to help care for folks who need help with medical expenses. Already there are many church-related hospitals/clinics that offer subsidized services. I think Christians should step up and find solutions and not ask Rome to do it.
I think it's important to note that many people have objected to the government bailout, to deficit spending, to the wars, and even to Medicare. It's just that the government has not been listening to these protesters for a long time. Maybe some of the rhetoric and frustration in this health discussion is based on pent up frustration over our elected officials ignoring us. I think a lot of it is also based on fear and the idea that things are scarce.
We live in the belief that resources are limited - that we play a zero-sum game, and therefore, we cannot provide resources to others without losing our own, pitiful as they may be. As Christians, though, we are called to an economy of abundance. A win-win game, where as we give to others, we receive more. This is how God's economy works.
KR,
You are kind. Glad we share a common experience. It affirms that the human life is not all that different from one person to the next. Thanks for reading and please continue to stop by as often as you wish.
Blessings, Ben.
Robert,
This is such a needed concern for the Body to address - thanks for keeping it before our eyes, but without the "attack" on the "other side". Also, Shane Claibourne talks about a health care cooperative in his book "Irresistible Revolution" where folks pay a flat rate a year to participate (reasonable, affordable) and then submit a bill if they do have to go to the doctor. You or your friends might want to check it out....
You make some excellent points. I think the issue is very complicated but I have also noticed one who is against health care of any kind is not against cashing his unemployment check or against taking out that Stafford student loan. I know I cashed that $600.00 dollar tax check the Bush administration gave us all. But I do wonder how we can keep adding to the pile of something for nothing.
Great thoughts and a great post - you are making me think a bit more. I do have to admit I am a bit apathetic. I guess I think what our government leaders eventually do will have limited value.
Ben and Robert, will the conversation pick up again soon? Or has it ended??? I do hope the latter is not the case.
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