Should People of Faith embrace ObamaCare?

The following is a response to an e-mail article I received.

I was forwarded this e-mail (The Peace Maker, Vol. 2, Issue 10, Aug. 18, 2009, see below) by someone I know who supports this organization. I see by the name on the e-mail, PaxChristi, that you invoke the name of Christ, and faith in Him is the justification for your support of the Obama/Democrat Health Care Plans. Now, as someone who also considers himself a person of faith in Christ, and because I care about peace and justice in this world, I find your position quite disturbing and in conflict with the values that Our Lord has taught us to follow. I write in an effort to begin a dialogue in good faith.

You identify the opponents of Health Insurance Reform (HIR) as right wing bloviators, and dismiss their concerns, … will kill the elderly (it won't); will include federal funding for abortion (it won't); and is a socialist take-over of health care (it isn't). Question: How come they don't burn their Medicare cards? …but offer nothing here but curt, parenthetical denials. This is what troubles me. There is a reason people are up in arms about these proposals and are fearful for their future in this brave new world of government control and fluctuating morality.

There is, for instance, a strong push in our society for physician-assisted suicide, supported by people mostly from the left. A cancer patient in Oregon was denied a particular drug therapy by her state run health insurance program, but in the same unsigned letter, was offered support in physician assisted suicide. When the drug company was made aware of this, they provided Barbara Wagner with the therapy, gratis. If cutting costs is one of the major objectives for HIR, is it not reasonable to assume that those on whom the most money is spent (the elderly and those with life threatening illnesses) will begin to see cutbacks in care, and that those in charge of disbursing funds are going to do so in a “cost-effective” manner? Now, you may rightly claim insurance companies do this now, but at least now people still have appeals, courts, and private funding to get around insurance company denials. When the government is the single-payer (single-provider) of health care, who do you go to, to get around them? You ask why they don’t burn their Medicare cards? I’ll tell you why. Their government began confiscating a portion of their earnings with the promise that they will be taken care of in their later years. They are entitled to that care, they paid for it! But the $36 bln in unfunded liabilities that Medicare now has should make anyone think twice about putting government in charge of health insurance.

You also deny that abortion would be federally funded.

From Page 45 of the DNC Party Platform:

Choice
19 The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's
20 right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any
21 and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

The Democratic Party is writing this health care bill, and Pres. Obama is adamantly pro-choice, even more extreme than most of his colleagues. Without specific, precise language denying any funds for abortion in the government plan, and I don’t believe there is any such language there, how can you deny abortions would be paid for in this plan? Obama and the Democrats believe reproductive rights are basic health care, why wouldn’t they pay for it?

Finally, regarding the issue of socialism or socialistic type programs, and reconciling those with following Christ. There are people in this world who are in need, people who have so little, and others who have so much and people of compassion naturally would want to see situations like this even out some. Socialism intends, or pretends, to even it out altogether. It does so by force, by law, and you have no choice but to conform.

This is not the legacy of Christ, who has indeed given us a mandate to care for the least, the lost, and the lonely. He gives us the choice to follow and obey Him, to sacrifice and give of ourselves, laying down our lives for our friends. You cannot follow His mandate by making some one else sacrifice. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, the sheep were rewarded for what they did, not for what they forced the goats to do. It is not an act of faith in Christ to take care of people you think have too little by sending the bill to people you think have too much. Anyone who thinks socialism is compatible with Christianity needs only to look around the world and see how the church is faring in lands where socialism has taken hold. Is the church vibrant, thriving, and adding converts day by day, and having a positive influence on the culture? Or is it fading, irrelevant, or even held in contempt by those it attempts to serve? You know the answer to that, don’t you?

Do we need reform in health care insurance and management? Absolutely! I know=2 0of no one who is content with the status quo, and no one on our side is unmindful of those in true need falling through the cracks. We just believe there are better ways to address those concerns than to adopt this +1000 page mish-mosh that democrat leaders haven’t read, nor understood, and foist it on the American people. This is nothing but a power grab, disguised as concern for health care.

The Peace Maker
because you care about peace and justice in our world

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Vol. 2, Issue 10 August 18, 2009
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HEALTH CARE INSURANCE REFORM -- CAN WE DO IT? YES WE CAN!

Suppose somebody told you there's a plan out there guaranteed to double your health care costs over the next 10 years, that's guaranteed to result in more Americans losing their health insurance, and that is by far the biggest contributor to our federal deficit.

There is. That's the plan we've got now. And if we let the opponents shout down rational discussion of health insurance reform that's what we'll keep, and that's what our kids and our grandkids will have.

These opponents run ads and right-wing talk shows bloviate insisting that health insurance reform care will kill the elderly (it won't); will include federal funding for abortion (it won't); and is a socialist take-over of health care (it isn't). Question: How come they don't burn their Medicare cards?

What's really annoying, so often they claim to speak for people of faith. But here's a different view:

Check out Faithful America's "40 Days for Health Reform" sponsored by an wide array of faith groups, including Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good; NETWORK, Catholic Social Justice Lobby; Sojourners; National Baptist Convention; Religious Action Center, Reform Judaism; New Evangelicals; National Council of Churches; United Church of Christ.

Go to http:// faithforhealth.org ; for information, suggestions, ideas, including a pledge that starts: "As a person of faith, I support health care reform, and I'm tired of special interests hijacking the debate." They also hope that sermons the weekend of August 28-30 will deal with the topic.

But there's some catching up to do. As Mark Twain observed: "A lie gets halfway around the world while Truth is pulling on its boots."