The great debate

I'm sure you've all been reading the proposals, views, counter views, and the required Chicken Little arguments over the current health care reform debate. Generally you can break down the opinions into two camps. Camp one says: Oh my gosh, the world is ending, the world is ending, you'll ruin us all! Camp two says: Oh my gosh, the world is end... Wait a minute! OK so getting beyond the hype, and being serious. The president has proposed a government backed health insurance program, and the requirement that every American be eligible. His opponents claim that the proposal is "socialized medicine" (which seems to have become a buzz word for the boogeyman) that will destroy our "world class health care system." (Actually, the US actually ranks 37th behind every country used as an example of "socialized medicine.")

As a hospital chaplain (intern), I have a little bit of perspective, albeit a different one than the rich men and women on capital hill. I work at Christus Santa Rosa in San Antonio, we're located downtown and serve the poorest of San Antonio's residents. Christus is a Roman Catholic hospital (to its marrow) that provides huge amounts of "charity care" every year, simply because the majority of the people it serves have no health insurance, and no money to pay out of pocket. (Though Lord they try.) I desperately wish the Washington politicians could walk our halls for a week, follow me on rounds, spend a night in the ER, and then go back to Washington.

We are among the top 50 hospitals in the country, that's right, the country. If I had to be sick, had to be hospitalized, I'd want to go there. Working here some things have become incredibly clear to me. First: there is a huge portion of our population who lack basic health care, but not because they are ignorant, live in the middle of nowhere, or lack the desire to work. In fact many of my patients work multiple jobs for crushing hours, at back breaking labor to feed, cloth, and house their families. But their employers offer no health insurance (and keep them just below full time of course) and they make just too much money to qualify for Medicaid/Medicare. They are the ever growing "working poor."

The number of people Christus treats for life threatening (and work ending) illness that could have all been prevented with access to simple preventative care is staggering. But that simple care? Out of reach. The medicine that would control the condition that will bring them to my telemetry unit? Out of reach. I sit with them and I listen to stories of anguish, of men and women terrified because they have been told their working life is over. Men and women whose families depend on their labor. Whose medical bills could mean the loss of their home.

And I have come to a new understanding of the "healthcare crisis" in our country. First and foremost, that the millions spent on hospitalization, surgery, etc for people who could have been taken care of for a few thousand dollars of preventative care is an obscene breach of stewardship in a nation that calls itself "Christian."

But worse, it is a failure to acknowledge the basic dignity of every human being. I have heard it said that "health care is not a right." No? If your dog, or horse, or cat is sick and you fail to provide it with medical attention you can be ticketed, fined, or even jailed. Yet we dare claim that health care is not a right for beings who are created in the image of God? I look into my patient's eyes and I cannot understand. In our baptismal covenant Episcopalians, Roman Catholics (and I am sure others) swear to respect the dignity of every human being. Those are not empty words, they do not require that we hold the door, or say please and thank you. To respect the dignity of one another we must uphold the dignity of one another.

Christus supports the President's calls to reform: an excellent, world class, non profit, Christian hospital whose mission statement is to "extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ to the world." Health insurance companies are against the reforms: companies who are currently making record profits, making medical decisions for their insured, and raising premiums at record rates (just ask my previous employer!). I am neither an economist, nor a doctor, nor an administrator.  I am a Christian chaplain who meets God in suffering people, who has met Christ in their rooms as she held their hands.

As you have done to the least of these, so you have done to me. Health care reform is not an option, it is an obligation. What it might look like, I do not know. But what I have come to understand is that if it follow the rules of the Kingdom of God it will make today's insurance companies scream.