Health Care Fear

I attended a seminar on Health Care Reform yesterday. One of the speaker’s main premises was that this debate is being largely driven by fear. People are afraid that:
• There will be a government takeover of health-care
• I might lose my good coverage
• The cost will bankrupt the nation
• We will wind up waiting for surgeries like they do in Canada or England
• Medicare will go belly up
It’s hard to refute that fear is playing a big part in this debate on both sides. As I listened yesterday, I was critical in my own mind of fearful people, and so I decided to see what it would take to get in touch with my own fear on the matter.
I have great insurance. That’s one of the things that you and the Presbyterian Church do for your pastor. I was surprised by how quickly I became fearful when I imagined “What if health care reform takes away my insurance?” Whoa!! I need that insurance! I’m a heart attack survivor – who else is going to insure me? Then I imagined, in our current health care system, having no insurance and a kid who needs a major operation. We all know people that are in this boat. I’d be afraid real quick if it was my kid, and no money to give them the best of care. It didn’t take me long to become fearful about this issue. I’m afraid of a change to my health care coverage, and at the same time I’m afraid that our nation will settle for the mess we have currently.
Then the speaker read to us a Scripture passage: “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7)
As people of faith, we know what to do with our fears. When we are afraid to stay the same and afraid to change as well, we will not become paralyzed with fear. God has given us a spirit of power and of love and of self discipline.
Power! We have levels of power to effect change that are unprecedented in the history of humanity. We have a representative democracy with relatively low levels of corruption. We have freedom of speech and expression. We have unheard of wealth. We are better educated than anyone ever. We can get health reform right!
Love! The love we have been given by God requires us to use the power God has given, not for our own gain; not to protect the piece of the pie we already have, but to perform deeds of compassion and justice for the poor, the oppressed and the down-trodden.
Self discipline! This will require self-discipline. Health Care abilities are so advanced that tough decisions will need to be made about what we cover. Do we pay for a heart transplant for an 80 year old, or do we provide pre-natal care to 3,000 mothers with the same money? These are tough decisions and they will require self discipline.
With a spirit of power, of love, and of self discipline, we can do this. I’m not endorsing a particular health care reform, but I am stepping out to say that what we have now is not working. Americans now spend 16.6% of our Gross Domestic Product on health care, and it is expected to rise to 21% in the next decade.1 In 2007 even before the recession began 19% of Arizonans and 17% of Americans didn’t have health insurance.2 Many of our nation’s poor use emergency rooms as their only health care. This is the most expensive place to receive health-care, and we are footing the bill. We are the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t have universal health care.3
We can do better. I’m sure we won’t get a perfect bill, but we must work together (Democrats and Republicans) to get something done. An imperfect bill can be tweaked as we go along. This is a watershed moment in American justice. Let’s not be so afraid that we let it pass.

1. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/25_NHE_Fact_Sheet.asp.
2. http://www.usnews.com/blogs/erbe/2009/08/20/what-is-the-actual-number-of-americans-without-health-insurance.html.
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care.