From the womb to the tomb

I don’t know anything about economics. I know I should; I am in Microeconomics with Dr. Lehman who definitely knows his stuff, but I’m no economist. I know the “invisible hand” and “tariffs, bad; free trade, good,” but that’s about it.

So I guess when it comes to this healthcare debate, I have a hard time viewing it as an economist. I can, however, look at it as one who has worked firsthand with the poor and who has lived the life of a Christian.

With that being said, I believe in healthcare reform. I believe that everyone in America deserves basic health care – not just in the direst hour.

During the summer, I worked one-on-one with the poor of my hometown. Every Friday I would sit down with men and women who are out of work or underworked, and provide them with bus passes, food or clothing. None of my clients have health insurance, but most of them or their spouses have physical ailments.

About a third of my clients are on disability – most aren’t any older than my parents. If they could afford yearly checkups, there’s a good chance that they wouldn’t be on disability. Diseases could be detected earlier, injuries cared for properly.

If money were not an issue, if our taxes would not rise, I think our perception of the healthcare issue would be entirely different. Of course everyone deserves the basic essentials of life. But once rumors of tax increases start spreading, we get scared. We start using phrases like “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”

It’s never that easy. Working with the poor has taught me that it is difficult to break out of that lifestyle. Generational poverty is not a temporary circumstance. My clients grew up in poverty without proper life examples to follow, living just like their parents and setting the same example for their kids; pulling oneself up takes a more than just landing a great job.

So is it really viable for people to just “go get a job” to pay for health care? Not overnight. Poverty isn’t an issue you can simplify that easily.

According to the CIA World Factbook, America doesn’t have the lowest infant mortality rate, but we by no means have the best. In a 2006 report by CNN, America is said to have the second highest newborn death rate in the modern world, especially among minorities and “disadvantaged groups.” In fact, the United States has more infant deaths than countries with universal health care like Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany and Finland.

As Christians we ought to have a “consistent ethic of life,” respecting life from “the womb to the tomb.” Have we focused too much on saving the unborn and ignored the cries of those who just can’t afford yearly checkups? Have we protested against doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia so much that we have forgotten those still living life?

I know this debate can continue forever. One side of the fence will say things like, “The government shouldn’t have this much power!” And the other side will argue, “But it works in Canada!”

For me, I believe that health care should be one of the promised essentials of American life. Our taxes pay for military protection and paved roads; why shouldn’t it may for health care as well?

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Tags: world news

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 8:00 AM and is filed under Feature.
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