The sin of universal health care, Part I

Contrary to popular opinion, there are worse things than death. Just ask the folks who established New Hampshire. They went so far as to make it the state motto. "Live free or die!" they challenged. Cutting to the chase, we'll go to the mattresses over our fundamental freedoms. I wonder, if they were motto-less, what would they come up with today? "Cover my health care or go to jail!"

Last night a friend posed a question about a viral challenge floating about Facebook.

"No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day...."

My friend knew I would not agree, hence the question. This, in a nutshell, is the argumentation of the politicos as they seek to cram universal health care down our throats today, a program that wouldn't be implemented for three-years worth of tomorrows.

On the surface the argument appeals to that same corner of our being that laments the puppy in the pet store window. Awww...how can you resist? Anyone who walks on by has a heart of stone. Don't you know--gulp--that if you don't purchase this pup (dab at the eyes) that it'll get gassed next Tuesday?

(That really is an ironic argument considering that that same political party touting that rhetoric has been seeking to make abortions available on-demand for the last 37 years.)

I don't mean to be crass, but we will all die, regardless of the status of our health care. I have no doubt that if in every case doctors were to apply every possible medical technique known, they would be able to prolong the lives of a majority of the folks. In the end, they will all die. That's the first problem with the pet-shop attitude about health care.

I'm reading a bio of Jonathan Edwards even now. I haven't gotten to the end yet, but I know what will happen. He'll die. In fact, he'll die at 52-and-a-half on March 22, 1758. You know why? I don't either (I haven't gotten that far), but I do know that medicine didn't deter his death.

Medicos can't figure out why we die, but the Bible explains it plainly.

"...Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned."

Because of sin, death entered the world. The image of God in man remains, but that visage is marred. From the moment we are conceived, we carry the sentence of death (a good topic for another post some other day).

Ultimately, the universality of death points to the problem of universal health care. I'll get to that in Part II. To say that none should die for lack of health care ignores the fact that all will die for any number of reasons at some point along the timeline.

So, how far should we go to save a human life? Good question. We'll look at that in the next post.