A Christian Perspective on Universal Healthcare

Most Christians I know are against the idea of universal healthcare. I believe that is due to a belief in scarcity and the desire to hold on to power.

I have heard so many fellow Christians offer the following commentaries about healthcare in other industrialized nations. "Well, that's what happens when you have universal healthcare; _________________"

• You can't get care fast enough
• The quality of the care is less
• Doctor's don't care any more.

We are convinced that there is and would be a scarcity of healthcare. What we really are saying is, "I am currently getting appropriate healthcare under this system, and I don't want the system to provide care to all citizens, because my care may suffer." This idea is wholly incompatible with Jesus' teachings

Philippians 2:3-5 says

Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of other as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Jesus gave up his position of power in order to help us to be whole spiritually. In the same way we should be willing for us to lower our standard of healthcare in order to provide healthcare for others. Truth be told, many of us believe that those with less healthcare are less important to the society, and in a Darwinian natural selection perspective should not siphon away good care from those that are important to society. Furthermore, how can we as Christians start from a paradigm of scarcity anyways. Does not the bible teach us that God owns the cattle on a 1000 hills? Can we not trust God to meet our needs?

Therefore, not only is the selfish withholding of healthcare (and thereby power) sinful, but the scarcity concept itself betrays our lack of faith in God.

When we have good healthcare we have power over those with poor healthcare. And no one is immune to the insatiable desire to hold on to power. The desire for power is one of the strongest emotions we all feel. The reality is that we make emotional choices that help us to retain power, and the support those decisions with other logic reasons.

Would there be challenges to open up healthcare? Certainly, but shouldn't we be willing to do the hard work in order to love both the powerful and the powerless?

Currently, in the United States healthcare is a privilege. Every privilege gives that person more power. We the people that have the power should be willing to provide healthcare to all so that it is not a privilege, and Christians should divorce themselves from the typical conservative position and lead the way in this effort.