HEALTH CARE: THE ULTIMATE PUBLIC OPTION

 

As I sit here writing this in February of 2011, the Congress of the United States is locked in a protracted partisan battle over the nature of health care for the disenfranchised citizens of this nation. Is a system that provides health care through profiteering corporations the best way for a nation to care for its people? Is it possible that there may actually be a better way to provide affordable and high quality health care? How about truly free health care?

 

I will show that there is a better way, a way that is totally free. It is God’s way!  Please allow me to start with an analogy of how things are currently done that may help with perspective. Let’s say that you personally go out and buy a brand new Ford, and then when something happens to it, you decide to take it to a Chevy dealer for service. The Chevy dealer may well be able to help out, but really, who is best equipped to understand a Ford than the people who make Ford? As humans, we are like that too. Did a doctor, hospital, congress or a president create you? No, No, No! We were all created by God, so He is the one best equipped to provide for our long term care. After all, He did print a service manual for us to learn how to have a healthy life and where to turn if we become ill.

 

Let’s continue with an example from Leviticus 11. Here we have instruction regarding specific earth and sea creatures that the Creator considers food fit for human consumption and those which He does not. Using a center reference bible will lead the reader to similar instruction that reveals the Creator’s intent for the nature of healthy food sources. Very soon after this instruction we find something long ignored by most religions on a worldwide scale, and this is extremely important and vital in understanding the nature of the ultimate public option.

 

Leviticus chapter 13 provides instruction specifying that it was the priests who were the trained professionals who diagnosed and treated illnesses for the nation of Israel! Clearly, the intent of the Creator is to provide lifelong health care beginning with the breath of life, and continuing through the work of His government. Totally free, in that there is no cost above that which is already set aside for governing the nation and providing for a ministry. Please remember that Governance under God’s system is inclusive of all functions including civil, spiritual and educational.  Health care is an essential added benefit of government, an extension of God’s blessing of life itself. It is the ministry of the church that is held responsible by God for our individual and collective health care. The entire New Testament is filled with examples of this in operation.

 

Christ Himself was widely known as a physician, and rightly so. He constantly set the example by providing relief of life altering and life threatening health problems, even the most life altering problem, death! The Apostles followed that example, by heeding the instruction of Christ as He sent them out on a twofold mission. In Matthew 10:8 He commands the Apostles to deliver a message, and to heal the sick.  Notice that they were specifically commanded to do so without charging any price! The Apostle James confirms this theme by telling the Spiritual Church that when there are any sick among them, they are to go to the elders of the church for help. This is simply an extension of the instruction found in the Old Testament regarding the role of the ministry in Israel. James then goes on and adds a new Spiritual dimension regarding faithful prayer and anointing with oil as a dynamic new additional way to seek relief of illness, since the way had now been opened for direct contact with the Father by the individual believer.

 

The ministry of today’s Church should therefore be the first in line to provide proper education of basic health related issues, such as what is considered food in today’s complex society, and what is not. For us today, the extension of Leviticus 11 would naturally be complimentary instruction to eat from the farm and not from the factory. Constantly eating products from the factory will expose a person to high doses of refined sugar, sodium, saturated fats, dangerous preservatives and a myriad of other additives that will harm one’s health and shorten life. This is one reason that I provide a link to Dr. Ozz, who advocates an approach to health that is often mirrored in Biblical instruction as it relates to our modern world.

 

When we allow ourselves to view overall healthcare as a direct responsibility of the Church itself, then it becomes clear that healthcare was intended as a free service of the Church, and not as the right of worldly corporations to profit from.   In ancient Israel, the ministry provided education to society for living a healthy life, and then also provided direct diagnosis and prescription for healing when illnesses did occur. That is not happening today, so who is filling the void other than paid professionals?

 

I would suggest that one way for our modern government to provide free and quality health care for its citizens would be to view it as a war, and extend the operations of veteran’s hospitals to all citizens who cannot afford normal insurance. Instead of having a convoluted health care law that caters to the rich and corporate interests, just leave the current system in place for those who can afford it and then create a genuine free public option to provide for the average citizen. Young and bright individuals could be trained to serve the health needs of the nation for a number of years in exchange for their education. This could be the perfect way to use our abandoned military bases and mental hospitals to completely change the nature of health care. This is not likely to happen with politicians, but we can be assured that in the world to come, God’s “public option” will be restored!