by Lowell Grisham

 

Printed in the Northwest Arkansas Times, Fayetteville, AR

August 31, 2009

 

Jesus is a healer.  Healing and teaching were Jesus of Nazareth’s most characteristic activities.  Healer-Evangelist Graham Jones documents that nearly 40% of the narrative verses in the New Testament are about healing.  Twenty-six of the thirty-five miracles of Jesus were healings (bible.org). 

Jesus healed anyone, neighbor or foreigner.  Once he healed ten lepers, the cast-offs of the health care system of Jesus’ day.  Of the ten, only one returned to thank Jesus:  a Samaritan – the first century version of an illegal alien.

The disciples continued Jesus’ work of healing.  The Acts of the Apostles tells twenty-eight stories of healing through the ministries of the disciples.  The climactic vision of the heavenly Jerusalem in the book of Revelation sees a tree growing at the center of the city, with leaves for the healing of the nations.

Healing and health care is something that Christians support.  That is why so many churches and denominations have made statements supporting the current discussion about how to improve our health care system. 

For Christians it is immoral that 50,000,000 of our neighbors have no insurance while profitable insurance companies make millions of dollars denying care.

The Old Testament prophets warned the wealthy and powerful “who are at ease… and feel secure.  …Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches; …who sing idle songs…; who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.” (Amos)  “The powerful dictate what they desire, thus they pervert justice.” (Micah)  “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah) 

How the ancient prophets would roar at a health care system where pencil pushing insurance bureaucrats on the 46th floor of some insurance company in Indianapolis tell your doctor what tests, procedures, and drugs you may use.  Insurance companies don’t answer to the people, they answer to their stockholders.  That’s why 20-30% of our insurance premiums go to bureaucratic paperwork that is largely about saving money by denying services and increasing profits.

I had my annual physical last week and my doctor told me, “All my hassles come from the insurance companies.  I spent twenty minutes on the phone today with some insurance bureaucrat trying to get authorization for something my patient needed.  I never have those problems with Medicare.”  And Medicare can get its paperwork done at one-tenth the cost of the for-profit insurance companies.  Public health care answers to the people, not to the stockholders.

There is a crisis.  Americans are suffering and dying and going bankrupt because they lose insurance when their jobs change or they get denied because of pre-existing conditions or insurance is priced beyond their means or their care is rationed by the insurance companies who too often make life and death decisions based on profit rather than what our doctors recommend.  Uninsured neighbors risk serious illness because they can’t afford preventative care.  We all pay when they have to go to the emergency room and when a simple problem has progressed into something more serious.  Healing is failing in America, and that is a moral and a religious issue, especially for those of us who take the priorities of Jesus seriously.

Rich Huddleston of the non-profit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families says this of the current house bill HB3200:  “What this is really about is providing coverage for the many uninsured people in our state.  It's about making sure that people aren't denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.  It's about reducing situations where people can't get procedures they need because someone has decided that in their case it is not warranted.  It's about making sure that we don't economically bankrupt families or force them to foreclose on their homes because they can't afford medical bills.”

The Epistle of James tells us, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?”  If a brother or sister lacks health care, and one of you says, ‘Go in peace; get well and take your medications,’ and yet you give them no way to access their care or their prescriptions, what is the good of that?

Christians care about our neighbors.  Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves.    Christians are pro-life, and therefore we are pro-heath care.  Christians support things that are good for children and families.  Christian values have helped shape our society.  Some Christians even claim that this is a Christian nation.  What better way to prove ours is a nation that lives out Christian values than to insure that everyone has access to basic health care.  Everyone. 

What would Jesus do?  Who would Jesus leave out?  Who would Jesus refuse to heal?