Bringing Sanity to Fallen World: Idaho Health Care Edition

Idaho appears the national leader now in bringing sanity to our health care system. Not that you would know it from the many complaints about what they are doing, as seen in the article in The New York Times:

Some groups representing patients, including the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association and the lobbying arm of the American Cancer Society, have denounced Idaho’s plans, saying they fear that some people will actually end up paying more. The new, cheaper plans would appeal to the healthiest people, they said, leaving less healthy people in a shrinking pool of people seeking coverage that meets the Affordable Care Act standards.

“A.C.A. premiums would increase, and options for individuals with pre-existing conditions would narrow,” the American Academy of Actuaries, a nonpartisan professional group in Washington warned in a letter to the Idaho Department of Insurance.

Sanity, of course, is exactly what these folks are objecting to. Because if people could actually see the world through a scriptural, i.e., accurate, perspective of reality, they would instantly see the folly of having the government provide health care to anybody. More on that later.

What is it that Idaho has done to so raise the ire of folks? The state is simply trying to allow citizens of their state to buy affordable health insurance policies outside the ObamaCare exchanges (they are doing this because the costs of insurance through the exchanges are skyrocketing, and have been for some time).

Here are the provisions in the proposed policies that have folks in such an uproar. The policies:

• do not have to comply with federal limits on out-of-pocket costs
• can have limits on the dollar amount of benefits available to consumers.
• could deny people with pre-existing conditions coverage for up to 12 months if they had not maintained “continuous prior coverage.”
• allow insurers in some cases charge different rates based on a person’s health status.
• allow insurers to ask consumers if they have had any of numerous medical conditions, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, AIDS and asthma.

To put this in context, all these provisions were the status quo less than a decade ago.

The biggest objection to the Idaho plan is that it is voluntary. Consumers are not forced to buy expensive policies under this plan; instead, Idahoans can buy the plan they choose with the coverages they need. Under ObamaCare, we are all forced to buy more expensive policies, even if we don’t buy through the exchange.

The main reason that the Left (and others–the concept for the individual mandate actually came out of the Heritage Foundation) wants to force us to buy expensive plans is that the government can then use the money from those high premiums to pay for health insurance for the poor.

This is where Christians really need to pay attention. If an individual stuck a gun in your face, stole your money, then used it to buy health insurance for the poor, that would be called theft–a violation of the Eighth Commandment–and they’d be put into jail.

But let the government do it, and many folks, even many Christians, want to call it compassion for the poor.

Christians should understand, however, that in the vast majority of cases the government’s taking money from one person and giving it to another does not make the original taking anything other than theft. Nor, in the case of welfare, does it foster charity in the hearts of those from whom the money was taken or in the hearts of those who do the taking. And it robs those who are receiving the money from the benefits of true charity–most importantly the relationship with the giver and the accountability that goes with the relationship. There is nothing compassionate about government welfare.

So what we see as a result is: 1) the poor remain poor; in fact their children often remain poor–if they stay alive after they drop out of school and are dragged down into drug use and gangs; 2) government grows and becomes a pay station for government employees whose sole focus is expanding their reason for existence, and 3) people who question this setup are called haters.

There is no Christian liberty in this. There is no Christian charity in this. There is no Christian sacrifice in this. It is simply oppression and slavery.

Which is the same way Satan operates. People without Christ have no hope, and no choice; they are simply slaves to their desires and cannot choose anything but oppression.

Christ, however, gives us a new heart. With this new heart we have a new desire–Him. And thus we choose not oppression but Him. This is Christian liberty–the ability to choose what is Good, what is Right, what is Beautiful. Out of this liberty we pursue charity, to give to others as we have been given to. In fact, we become willing to sacrifice, and give even more than we have been given. Just like Christ did for us.

Christians should look closely at the results of government welfare programs so they can understand how they rob all of us–even the poor–of liberty, charity, and sacrifice.

Next: Bringing Sanity to a Fallen World: Iowa Health Care Part 2