Is It In Us?

The USA Today had a detailed story about the condition of health care in the state of Texas, highlighting issues affecting the entire nation as well.  They picked Texas, not because it is alone in the quagmire that is the health care industry, but because it's the worst.  By worst I mean that it has the highest percentage of uninsured residents in the country.  My fair state of Oklahoma doesn't fair much better, coming in at 47th.  Overall there are 45 million Americans with no health insurance.  No health insurance usually means no hope when it comes to getting respectable, even quasi-quality health care.

The impetus for this story is likely the anticipation of the new documentary by Michael Moore, called Sicko.  The movie is an in-depth look at the fatal flaws that currently exist in our country's health care industry.  It painfully chronicles the stories of those who's quality of life has been diminished or even ended not because of a lack of ability on the part of doctors to do something, but because of a lack of access by the patient to get the assistance those doctors can provide.

The summation of the story is that insurance rates continue to rise at an alarming pace.  Even with the rate increase, the level of insurance is not maintained as co-pays and deductibles rise as well.  Feeling the pressure, employers are reducing the level of insurance they provide to employees and their families.  So added to the uninsured is a large group of people in this country who are under-insured or who find their insurance pointless as they are denied treatment.  Meanwhile, insurance companies continue to reduce the amounts they pay to doctors and hospitals, such that these places are forced to reduce or quit offering services that don't make a profit, services such as the emergency room.

At the same time all this is going on, insurance companies continue to see record profits.  And their using those profits to strong-arm the government into ignoring this devastating problem.  (A quote from the Sicko trailer reveals that there are four health care industry lobbyists for every member of Congress).

I'll give you just two statistics that should shake us to the core and wake us up to the awful state of health care in our country:

1. The United States has the LOWEST life expectancy among all industrialized nations in the world.
2. The United States has the HIGHEST infant mortality rate among all industrialized nations in the world.

Chew on that for awhile.  We've got more wealth and better doctors than any other industrialized nation in the world and yet we fail in two of the most critical categories that exist.

My fervent prayer (yes I did use that term seriously) is that this film and the news stories it spawns will create an unrest so great that dramatic changes will result.  I believe that followers of Christ should lead the charge on this issue, not because it is necessarily the "free-market" thing to do and not because it's the "American" thing to do, but because it is the Christian thing to do.  What can overcome the vast stockpiles of cash at the disposal of the insurance industry?  Nothing, if not the prayers and sacrificial love of the followers of Christ.

1 John 3:17 asks us as believers a challenging question, and one that is very timely.  "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?"

It is not only our brothers who are in need, but our sisters and our fathers and our mothers.  We have a voice, we have a vote, and we have resources.  If we are unwilling to pray for and cry out for a change that will meet their need then how can the love of God be in us?