Health care has become a rather sensitive issue for many lately. If one were to publicly express an opinion on the issue two years ago, the average American would show as much interest in the topic as they would if national elections in Peru were being discussed. Had the President made the environment, or the housing market his top domestic priority, I can’t imagine there would be as many town-hall meetings, violent encounters among the citizens, and media coverage on those issues, as there is currently with the health care debate in Congress.
Health care, unlike these other topics, has something very powerful in common with strongly controversial issues, such as abortion and gay marriage. These issues are not secular in nature; rather they are moral, spiritual and religious. They’re also rather personal in nature, and as a result, people tend to have a stronger reaction when they’re discussed in an arena that will affect them directly, such as the U.S.
Congress.
At this point in time, people are feeling that the government is either interfering with their individual liberties by legislating this issue, or they’re simply not doing enough to guarantee the health care of every American.
It’s very difficult to argue that this is not a religious or a moral issue. Do we have a responsibility to provide food and hospital care for those who can’t afford it? Absolutely! Is it the responsibility of the government to do so? This is where the debate begins.
On June 8, the Florida Catholic Conference argued the following point in a memo, “In our Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human right. Access to health care should not depend on where a person works, how much a family earns or where a person lives. Instead, every person created in the image and likeness of God, has a right to life and to those things necessary to sustain life, including affordable, quality health care. Health care reform has long been a priority of the Florida bishops as well as the U.S. Catholic bishops.”
Ibrahim Abdil-Mu-id Ramey of the Muslim America Society states, “MAS Freedom, through its 12-Point 2008-2012 Legislative Agenda (Point III), has endorsed the movement for comprehensive national health care reform, including the need to provide medical insurance for the more than 47 million people in America who have no health insurance at all.”
Throughout the religious spectrum, one will find a very similar consensus among most of the various faith-based institutions in America. The problem is that these religious leaders are trying to transfer this particular problem from themselves to the government. This is because, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, “roughly 44 percent of Americans now profess a religious affiliation that is different from the religion in which they were raised.” How can religious institutions band together to take care of their neediest parishioners, when almost half of the next generation is expected to leave the faith altogether?
The Amish will be exempt from all mandates in the health care plan should it pass, just as they are exempt from Social Security taxes today. This is because the government realizes that the Amish value a moral system where they are expected to take care of each other in times of age or bad health. Historically, they have succeeded in doing so, and their efforts are rewarded by special recognition.
Since the major religions of this country failed to meet this challenge, the government has stepped in to propose mandating coverage on individuals through higher taxes, federal fines and complex legislation. We need to consider our responsibility in the health care issue through our respective faiths, when power is surrendered to politicians because of our failure to realize the needs of the less fortunate.
Christian Kourkoumelis
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