(ThyBlackMan.com) On March 23, 2010, The Affordable Healtcare Act transfigured healthcare. Six months later, concerns over the program’s cost was a catalyst that helped Republicans win control of the House of Representatives during the mid-term elections. Now, one might ask, why did healthcare need to be reformed? Escalating costs threatened to exceed Medicare’s ability to cover its cost, and the research further states those ever-increasing cost contributed to 50% of all bankruptcies on record. The value of our healthcare was one of the poorest in the civilized world.
This article will look objectively at the pros and cons of Healthcare from a Christian perspective. I have solicited the expertise of 2 fine medical professionals, Dr. Shola Shade Ezeokoli; Life Coach, Bestselling Author, Speaker and Teacher, along with Dr. Shanick
a Williams, a board certified family medicine physician with a passion for entrepreneurship, health education, & community enrichment to assist with the task to that end: cause; solution and propensity for change.
The good news: By 2014, the economy profited from having 95% of the population with health insurance. That feat alone reduced the number of Americans without healthcare to its lowest level in the history of the United States. Consequently, this achievement reduced the number of emergency room visits to the hospitals, lowering operating costs. Bankruptcies declined since medical expenses or lack thereof, were the number one cause of financial catcastrophies.
The Bad news: Dr. Shola Shade Ezeokoli insists: “I am 100% for complete coverage of everyone. But to be honest with you, the Affordable Care Act is one of the many reasons that I’m no longer going to be a primary care physician. In all fairness, more people can see a primary care doctor now. However, quite a number of these insurances that came with the affordable care act, especially the ones that came out of the Medicaid expansion, are not accepted by a lot of specialists.”
This response was similar in nature to problems experienced by other medical managers such as Dr. Shola Her practice is thriving in spite of the rocky road she has experienced with the inception of the ACA.
The truth is that health care costs, including costs for long-term services and supports, are a growing burden for middle-class families across all age groups. Wages have not kept up with increases in health care costs, and more middle-class families are struggling to cope with higher health insurance premiums and higher out-of-pocket expenses when they have an illness. Rising health care costs are maxing out other important priorities for employees, such as saving for their own retirement or for their children’s college education. Employers have responded to higher health care costs by scaling back wage increases, shifting cost increases to their workforces, or changing the type of insurance they offer; hence the dilemma America’s healthcare community now faces.
As referenced ealier, if you walked into any emergency room across the United States on any given weekend night, you will find the same situation: a waiting room full of citizens who cannot afford healthcare but are in need of it. Many of these people cannot afford to go to a doctor who is a general practitioner during regular office hours. So, their only recourse is to go to the emergency room at the local hospital who by law cannot turn away someone who is in need of medical treatment. Since the local hospital must treat these patients, and since the hospital will, in many cases, receive little or no compensation for the treatment, the hospital must pass along the costs of treating those who cannot afford to pay to those who either can afford to pay or who have insurance to cover the costs of their medical care. The paying patients end up making up the difference to cover the costs of those who cannot pay.
The government has tried to correct this issue by making health insurance more affordable for everyone and subsidizing those who cannot afford the premiums by offering government assistance to cover the costs of the premiums. The law that strives to do this is the “Affordable Care Act,” or ACA, though it is more commonly called “Obamacare” since the issue was pushed through under the leadership of President Obama. From a Christian worldview, how should a follower of Christ respond to the ACA? Here are two positive attributes of the ACA that the Christian can embrace:
1. God wants us to care for the poor and disadvantaged.
God cares about every person, which includes the wealthy, the poor, and everyone in between. God calls for those who are struggling in life to be helped along the way. The government’s efforts to be sure that everyone can receive the proper healthcare is a positive thing. Notice what the Bible says:
If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need.
(Deuteronomy 15:7-8, NIV).
We are called to reach out to those who need help. When our neighbors are sick and in need of healthcare, the community should join together and provide the care that is needed. We should do so with love and joyful hearts. Helping the poor is always the right thing to do, and so the redistribution the ACA offers is necessary.
2. It is cheaper to keep people well than to treat the sick.
From a practical standpoint, if those who cannot afford insurance end up being treated at the local emergency room anyway and the community bears the burdens of those costs in the end, isn’t it better to have a system where those same people can receive the treatment that they need so that the medical issue might can be dealt with before it gets even worse? Medication is cheaper than surgery.
If a person insured through the ACA can get the needed care from a doctor thus making the hospital stay unnecessary, think about the incredible savings that have just been realized. If possible medical issues can be discovered through a routine physical and can be treated so that it does not progress to being a major medical situation, the entire community will benefit from saving the costs that hospitals now have to make up by charging higher fees. Plus, lives will be saved, and the quality of life will be better for the disadvantaged who are healthier and for the others who are saving money on healthcare. Dr. Williams Shanicka sums her assessment up in these terms, and the Bible agrees in Matthew 5:14-16:
Your good deeds, well doing, feeding and clothing those in need, helping a friend, donating money to causes to help others, remember, that although these things may make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, they are NOT for your advantage and feel good moment. They are for the glory of God so that those who do not know him can come to know him by watching you do what God intends you to do.
Though some of the ACA may have to be adjusted as we learn how to improve the system, the overall goal of the government through the ACA and the help that comes to the poor and disadvantaged in our communities is laudable. Although it is not an end all to be all solution, by virtue of its resilience, the ACA is a positive step in the right direction, inspite of the contentions of Republican stalworts in this national election year.
Staff Writer; Stanley G. Buford
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