Health Care and the Church #2

The website "Living Lutheran" picked up my blog on "Health Care and the Church" which I posted about a week ago.  There have been a  few folks who commented on the post, and a few of those comments are worth responding to.

One in particular grabbed my attention regarding the concept of social justice particularly taking care of the widows and the poor.

First, to deal with a major assumption:

Some folks assume that when you criticize some aspect of a law, you are against the law completely.    For certain, the health care law passed by congress and deemed constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court has some very good things: allowing parents to carry children on insurance until the age of 26, forcing companies to spend 80% of consumer's premium dollars on actual health care instead of overhead, striking down bans on those with pre-existing conditions, striving to make sure as many people as possible have access to health care, and other such measures.  I'm personally in favor of such things.   They make sense to me in the areas of compassion and justice.

However, I have a hard time believing one of the core pieces of the Affordable Health Care Act--the individual mandate--is in accordance with Lutheran theology on theological principles and on justice principles. 

The theory goes, everyone will need health care at some point and time.  Forcing everyone to purchase health insurance will expand the pool of those insured dispersing the risk associated with health care and thereby lowering the price of health care in the long run.  That's the theory in a nutshell, but let's take a look at reality and who will actually bear the cost of this.

#1. Will it be the "rich"  (just a note: I'm not particularly fond of using divisive language like rich/poor, black/white, etc.  I find it creates more problems than it solves and actually tears communities apart)?  Unequivocally, I think we can say, "No."  Those with means generally have health insurance already and are well taken care of.

#2.  Will it be the poor?  No.  Government subsidies and Medicaid will take care of the poor as they already do.

Who does that leave?  Who will bear the brunt of the individual mandate?

Folks like my brother-in-law who makes too much to qualify for Medicaid (and probably wouldn't seek it out because he wants to earn his way and not rely upon the government) but doesn't make enough to purchase health insurance because of the cost.  For him, it will cost less to pay the penalties (ahem, tax) than purchase health insurance; yet because of his situation, this $95--to begin with--is still a hardship. 

Folks like others I know who do not have health insurance who have had to undergo surgery or other procedures who work out payment plans with the hospitals.  Rather than purchase insurance, they chose to roll the dice and when it came up snake eyes, they took responsibility and worked to pay their medical bills.

Is it just to make such people purchase something they do not desire?

Is it just to make such people--who take responsibility for their decisions--pay a penalty for a choice that impacts only themselves?

Is it just to force those who slip through the cracks--who are neither wealthy or poor to bear another financial burden in the midst of rising food, energy, and fuel prices?  Is it just to squeeze the middle class even more?  

In my estimation, it is not just at all.  It's not taking care of the widows and orphans.  It's not taking care of the poor.  It's hitting those right smack dab in the middle who tend to struggle to stay above water. 

(I am aware of one study that has been done on the numbers of people the individual mandate will affect.  It claims by simulation that 6% of the U.S. population will be affected by this mandate.  Commentators have called this number "small."  I remember when unemployment was at 6% or below.  I never heard anyone say that number was small by comparison.  18.5 million isn't a small number by any stretch, and as noted, these are neither wealthy or poor people.  They are those who struggle the most to make ends meet, and the individual mandate has just made it that much more difficult.  Justice?  I don't personally believe so.)