Health Care: A Fundamental Right?Is universal health care a fundamental right? For the Christians among us, what would Jesus say?This article is based on a recent Theological Reflection by Kevin Hughes in our Education for Ministry theology class. Kevin and I are both in the fourth and last year of this program. We are not in training to be ministers but rather to better understand Judeo-Christian theology and our on ministries. I prefer the term "medicine work" as opposed to ministry. This is a critical question in the ongoing debates (and hysteria) about health care reform. How Kevin put the reflection togetherHe started with health care horror stories he gathered from Google, three stories of personal experiences of his own and two friends. He then followed this with a fact sheet on the subject.Health Care Horror StoriesA Goggle search on health care insurance horror stories yields a plethora of examples that highlight one of the problems we are facing today in health care. To paraphrase Ronald Regan who once said government was not the solution but the problem: today as it relates to health care reform, insurance is not the solution, it is the problem. In fact it is one of many problems but probably the most serious.PersonalKevin's wife has a prescription denied once every year for a medication at a dose higher than normal by Merck Medco (she had her most recent denial this week). She has tried the generic, and it did not work. The hassle and grief caused by the denial every year for her, her doctor and her doctor’s nurse to correct the problem is ridiculous. After one cycle you would hope the insurance company would get it. It is as if they are hoping the customer will just give up or the doctor will get tired of the trouble and expense of fighting this over and over.Two personal friendsOne with depression and alcohol abuse and the other with depression and bulimia. Both were very ill and doing poorly seeking routine therapy through conventional avenues. Both were thinking of suicide. Their insurance companies were contacted and both were denied coverage at Sierra Tuscon because they had not attempted suicide recently. The costs for treatment at Sierra Tucson were around $50,000. each (with no insurance coverage) with additional follow-up costs at roughly another $25, 000. each of which a small part was covered by insurance. This is an example of how dealing with mental illness with one of the best facilities in the world often goes only to the wealthy or the very lucky.Background
The Reflection StatementWe can attain universal health care, a fundamental right, that is the best in the world and at a reduced or modest cost.Is universal health care a right or a privilege?In the discussion in the class that followed, we talked about what our culture, position, and tradition say about this subject.CultureOf course what we are getting now is mixed messages from our culture. But these messages only indirectly address the question of universal health care as a right. There are numerous nay-sayers, screamers, and "againers" that are opposed to health care reform, not the least of which are the health care insurance companies. We are trying to kill the insurance industry's goose that has been laying their golden eggs. Their indirect message is a "no" to our question. health care is not a right. It is only for those that can afford it. To be fair, many of these are not against health care reforms per se, but rather the public option or anything that might raise their taxes, or affect their own health care programs.Then there are the "pros", which are sensitive to the plight of the 45,000,000 plus without health care, all those who have inadequate health care coverage, or have their own experiences with having to deal with the health care insurance companies. They do see universal health care as a right. PositionWhile most of us had a position, that is a personal opinion, on the question that was in the affirmative, it was interesting to note that a couple of our members didn't know what all the fuss was about. They weren't sure, or hadn't been sure before Kevin's background and personal stories, followed by several of the class members' own experiences or stories. Both of these, as it turned out, had had long term health insurance with which they were happy. They were unaware of all the suffering of others in this drama. With their awareness level raised by our discussions, they too thought universal health care should be a right.TraditionClearly, Jesus was a healer. He did not ask for insurance cards or payment. He sent his disciples out with a commandment to heal. The Christian tradition is pretty clear about this. So we felt and thought.The consensus of the class was that universal health care was a right, not a privilege. |
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