HLTH - 556 DB 7 - Urgently Required. 12-16 Hours. Need A + Work

Week 7 Discussion Board “Value”

 As we have come to the end of the class and the last discussion board, I wanted to make sure we finished with the value we place on our health and the health of others. I hope to take it from two standpoints without a particular direction of where to go. The first part has to do with the value of life and the perspective that all life is created by God and therefore precious. When we begin talking about health care policy, starting at the emotional point of taking care of those less fortunate than us (or us, depending on your perspective), we sometime assume we can change the outcome simply by enacting legislation or providing funds. I think we have to start with the understanding that illness and disease and to the greater point death itself, are manifestations of the fall from grace that occurred long ago in a now veiled garden. The world is broken and until the return of the Lord, it will remain so, even with universal health care; which brings me to my non-secular first point.

Jesus did not command us to develop a health care policy, He did not command universal care, nor did He establish the right to health. What He did was command us to do as He did:

  “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.” John 15: 9-17

Therefore, it is our responsibility to care for the needy and the afflicted, to love our neighbor, to show charity for the poor, comfort the elderly, take care of one another, our families and be of God in all that we do. We do all of these things poorly. If we just took care of our own family and the two neighbors next door, we would cure half of what ails us; which brings me to the secular point of view.

Our fallen world says that we have all the rights and we can make all of the choices. Health is a right just like breathing is a right. Everyone should be well and if we are not well, then we should have the medical coverage we need to get well. At the same time the secular world is saying, “we do not need the traditional (define by God and therefore from whom the commandment is given) family to define who we are; we do not need to control our selfish desires for the sack of not aborting an unborn child; and we do not need to worry about the amount of food or drink we consume because we have that right as well. How can you provide health to individuals who do not hold to the value of life? Sorry I do not understand the mentality. When someone said that granny is going to die without this or that, my first question is not “what can I do” my first question is “where are grannie’s kids”? Understand, as a Christian, I am willing to care for Granny if the kids will not, but the ideal that we are going to abdicate our responsibility for taking care of our families to the federal government or charity even though we are capable of doing so is not the answer to the problem at hand.      

So now I am at the third point and it is a simple one. This is the link to the national debt clock:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

I place this up in each of my classes at least once a Month. I have the students estimate the amount of debt that will accumulate while we are in class. I have told them that they also need to tell me five things the government manufactures that they can sell to help pay off this debt; the government!

Understand this is not a Republican or Democrat problem or mess; this is you and I and everyone else in America’s mess, because we keep making the same choices assuming we will get a different outcome. That is the definition of insanity and we are all consumed by it. This is my debt, this is your debt, and as of today, it was $ 63,719.00 per person and counting. That is every person, not the just the rich and not just the poor or middle class but everyone owes it. In fact, if you look only at those individuals who pay taxes, the individual debt per-tax payer is $ 172,128.00. If you really want to get depressed, look at the un-funded liability of the US government at the bottom and check out that number in relationship to liability per taxpayer ($926,639.00). The clock keeps ticking away. I believe the results of the election are less about what the candidates promised in the election but what the eventual winner did not promise to the voting blocs:  Free health care, free college tuition, free housing and other free stuff!

Let me make sure we are completely clear here, I am for affordable, accessible, quality health care for all of our citizens and I believe that the government should create a way for individuals to obtain that form of health care. That said, you have to understand that this piece of legislation was a train wreck. It would cost half as much over the long term if we just gave the money directly to the individuals and had them go out and purchase insurance. Most of the issues with the legislation are that it has nothing to do with better health care but everything to do with control of individuals and creating a voting block out of those who need it, and both political parties who are willing to give it freely to obtain those votes. One of the contributing factors in the election of Donald Trump is the fact that the premium increases in several battle ground States were between 30% and 110% over last year. Even the voting bloc associated with this policy could not justify the incredible cost increases over the last three years and the lack of improvement in healthcare. Now we have insurance companies dropping out of the exchanges because the escalating cost associated with the policies and the limited enrollments to support the cost of the medical coverage.

Again, I am all for higher quality, accessible and affordable health care for everyone. Nevertheless, how do we pay for it? We borrow 40 cents on the dollar today and no plan to pay any of it back. 20 trillion dollars in debit and counting and we are currently calling each other names over a reduction of 2% of future increases!!! Yet we are going to guarantee everyone the right to health care?

Therefore, my final question is this:

Once the economy crashes from the unpaid liabilities and the government is unable to provide the services it has guaranteed, what happens to health care? Because if the government cannot afford to pay for food, clothing and shelter, how can it pay for anything else? Moreover, if not fixed, the system will crash, and the government will go broke and the citizens will be responsible for paying back the debt and then who can afford health care?

I am not trying to be doom and gloom; but what ever happened to “love one another”?

PS. Several times on past discussion boards the words “richest nation” has been used as a way to help define why we should provide health care to everyone.

I want you to remember that the nation is not rich; in fact the government is broke and could not borrow another dime if it did not have the power to print more money. The nation is not the richest in the world, its citizens are. So when you make that statement you are actually advocating that the money accumulated by the “lucky” hardworking individuals be taken away so that the “nation” (government) can distribute it to those who need it most (health care). I know that most of you understand this but have been told differently; this is socialism at the least and Marxism at the worse.

I don’t know about all of you, but I am one generation removed from no running water and an outhouse. I have what I have because I was willing to live in my car during graduate school and worked 80 hours a week to provide for my family and build a life for them. I give my 40% to the government each year and 10% to the church and make due on the 50% left over. If you look at the numbers, I am considered wealthy by today’s standards, but if you looked at my debt and my bank account, you would get a different picture. I figure the government taking 40% of what I earn (and provide a very limited service in return) is just about all they need. I am a firm believer in having “Skin in the Game”. If we are expecting the “richest people” in the world to provide a service to everyone, then everyone needs to place equal amounts of “Skin in the Game”. I have 40% of my Skin in the game and still work two jobs to provide health insurance for my family; but daily I hear that I am lucky or privileged or greedy or selfish because I have more than someone else. Let them do what I have done to acquire what I have acquired, then they will understand why I think I have enough Skin in. I would also add that if they are willing to work as hard as I have, they will get tired of people calling them greedy as well!

Finally, let’s acknowledge that we all miss the point on this item as well:

17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” (Mark 12:17)

We can’t run around indicating that it is our Christian responsibility for the government to provide healthcare for everyone. If Jesus commands “US” to love one another, why are we giving our responsibility as commanded by God to Caesar?

I am going to continue to love my neighbor, take care of my mother and father, provide support to those in need through my church,  and see that my family's needs are met.