Caring Christians for Health Care

The Supreme Court of the United States recently declared what is called “Obama-care” constitutionally permissible. It was a milestone for this country, and a surprising one at that. I thought Obama-care wouldn’t pass, but not a few people were just as surprised as I was. There is no point in trying arguing whether it is unconstitutional or not now. I have had some intense debates about Obama-care, but almost none with disciples. The conversations about health care I’ve had are usually with non-believers. I should be having more with my brothers and sisters but I don’t. Is health care important, and if so, how are Christians to approach it? Let us look at some Scriptures first.

1st Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” The immediate context of this verse is a warning against adultery, so it isn’t about health. However, we can still extract the general principle that the physical body must be treated ethically and with dignity. I notice many Christians seem to focus on how they are doing “spiritually” yet forget that their physical part matters as well.

2nd Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.“

Ephesians 5:29, “After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church…“

Matthew 25:34, 36-37, 39-40, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world… I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?…When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” The relationship between the sick and health care should be obvious enough. The attending for health care is an indirect care for our Lord.

On top of this, there are numerous passages where the Bible records Jesus healing the sick. In Matthew 10:8, he tells his disciples, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Even when Jesus couldn’t do miracles and was given offense, as described in Mark 6:5, he still went out of his way to heal the sick.

In sum, Christians should care about health care for three reasons. First, humans are inherently valuable, so their health is important. If health care is supposed to be a tool in the maintaining of human health, then some attention should be paid to health care. Secondly, Jesus healed the sick, and so should we. Of course we can’t take care of all the sick because we can’t meet them all, but implementing  a system of health care for an entire nation is an indirect way to expanding your impact. This of course means getting involved with civil work, like voting and being informed ethically and economically, but it’s a small price to pay to potentially save lives. And finally, we should care about health care because serving the common good is indirectly serving our Lord. Anything we do for the sick, we do for Jesus. Jesus commanded it, and the health care system is an important tool to that end.

Christianity has a good record when it comes to health care as well. Historically, Christians have built many hospitals and at one point tried to build a hospital in every town there was a Cathedral. And perhaps this is the best way we can show love to our neighbors. In Luke 10:25-37, we read, “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
 “Go and do likewise.” 

Jesus told him, following the affirmation that we ought to love God and our neighbors, Jesus provides us with an example of health care not only to show us who our neighbors are, but how to love them. Jesus probably thought health care was important. Here we can extract some general principles of how to approach health care and how not to approach it. Margaret Thatcher reminds us, “No-one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well.” And indeed this is true. When we consider plans of health care, we should consider the economic impact that they will have. Health care plans that do damage to the individuals or the country as a whole should not be supported, no matter how well intentioned they are. Taking care of people (which the Samaritan did), running hospitals (like the inn), buying medicine (someone had to produce and sell the bandages, oil and wine), paying doctors (the inn keepers), transporting the victim (the Samaritan’s donkey probably wasn’t free and it costs to maintain), etc., all cost money. Some may object that they have no idea how to think about economic impact. No need to worry. Here is a good list of books to start.

Also, there is frowning upon, but no explicit condemnation for, the Priest or Levite. The Samaritan did not chase them down and take their money from them to force them to pay for someone they didn’t want to care for in the first place. In the same way, we should do our best to avoid the forcing of third parties to pay for our modern health care systems. Because Jesus has established a religion, and religion has done much for health care, it might be best to leave it to private organizations like them (which is currently dominated by Catholic institutions) and not in the hands of a government where they pay for someones health care using another persons money. Also concerning third party payment systems, there is an economic tendency to be greedy with health care benefits, and economists have concluded that, “Because the tax system has induced workers to believe that someone else was paying their bills for their care, they have pushed for better health benefits regardless of costs.” And this of course increases the taxes to pay for health care, which takes more money away from the individuals. The health care should be provided by the employer, should he choose to, though it shouldn’t be demanded in most cases (exceptions being perhaps those who work in construction or in the military and other jobs that are inherently dangerous).

There is much more to be considered in health care. Should abortions or euthanasia be considered health care? Is it okay to for governments, which probably shouldn’t be too involved in the health care in the first place as they are a third party, to force religious health care institution, like Catholic hospitals, to provide technology and procedures they deem immoral, like contraception or abortion? This goes deeper into Bioethics, which outside of the scope of this article, but hopefully this will give you some things to think about when it comes to being your brothers keeper.

For more information about sound health insurance policies, see the Galen Institute.