How Should Christians Feel About Healthcare Reform?

http://www.dennyburk.com/?p=4855
Interesting link:
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba649#_edn9

Paul:

You’re kidding if you think that the manufacturing demise in the US is due to healthcare. It’s due to a lot of things, but they were in place long before health care became problematic. Maybe a final straw so to speak.

---

New Comment
My personal feeling about Government health care is that it’s thieving, debt-producing and (as Lindsay pointed out), results in a continued reliance on someone else to do my caring for me. But as for the socialized health care versus fee for service, an interesting note that I hear. In one country, it’s weeks for an MRI but for pets, you can pay to have it done the next day. Funny and very sad (more that there is actually a high enough demand for the latter).

---

New Comment
Well, I was trying mostly to avoid appearing as one of the many that decry the great health care plan to the north, but since you query, the source was the 20/20 report. It cited Canadian vets giving a 24-hour turn around on MRI’s for pets.

I didn’t cite anything about dying, but if you wanted stats on death, here are a few (related to healthcare):
* - Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany, 9% higher in Canada than in the United States, and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the U.K. and 457 percent higher in Norway, 184% higher in Canada. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher. (Concord Working Group, U.S. Cancer Statistics, National Program of Cancer Registries, U.S. Centers for Disease Control; Canadian Cancer Society/National Cancer Institute of Canada)

Or preventative (June O'Neill and Dave M. O'Neill, "Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S."):
Nine of 10 middle-aged American women (89 percent) have had a mammogram, compared to less than three-fourths of Canadians (72 percent).
Nearly all American women (96 percent) have had a pap smear, compared to less than 90 percent of Canadians.
More than half of American men (54 percent) have had a PSA test, compared to less than 1 in 6 Canadians (16 percent).
Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) have had a colonoscopy, compared with less than 1 in 20 Canadians (5 percent).

The MRI wait time is a microcosm of the challenges with socialized medicine. When someone is diagnosed with cancer, they don’t have time to wait for 6 months to get an MRI to confirm it.

I agree that many church goers failed (you definitely have that pegged). I would say, though, that is not a failure of the Church. Most churches here have a very strong benevolence ministry (or several). The couple of Christians I know who are doctors do the free clinic work (my sampling is 2 and both do, so in my study, 100% of Christian doctors give of their time ;-). We send medical mission trips as well (though those are abroad, not local in the absence of a Katrina). The challenge is people to actually put in the effort for it (and, as a sidebar, the fact that many don’t want anything to do with “church” at all). The culture has saturated the church in that manner. Why should I go and help, there’s welfare and assistance programs and childcare available…….etc. Why go help when we can throw money (especially when most of it is someone else’s money). Socialized healthcare just reinforces the idea that it’s OK, someone else will take care of this problem for me. It is not a dichotomy to be against the currently proposed socialized healthcare and continue helping the less fortunate.