On Healthcare

Henry Neufeld has been having a conversation, some of which is with me, on Healthcare and how being Christian touches on that. He has two more posts to draw attention to, one on a visit to emergency room, and another on fear. I’m going to comment on the first (and hope to on the second later), but before I do, I want to make two things clear. As Mr Neufeld also writes, I share the notion that I am thinking these things through “out loud” on the blog to elicit comments. All these ideas and notions I put forth are not fully thought out. What we’re seeing is more the process as I try to work out some of these issues, a process I’d enjoin others to join in.

The second and more important point, in discussing Mr Neufeld’s emergency post, I’m going to be critical. I want to make it clear I don’t mean this criticism personally, and that all the criticism I offer, applies equally to me, that is, I’d probably respond and fall prey to the things I’m criticizing at least as much if not more than Mr Neufeld. To re-iterate that last point, I offer these criticisms in a generic fashion more as a thing which all of us do, but they may seem as a criticism of Henry but that is only because I am using his example.

Mr Neufeld begins:

I’m 50 years old, and a few weeks ago I made my first visit to the emergency room. (Just for interest, I have never been admitted to a hospital in my life for any reason.) I had pain in my upper abdomen, quite severe, and it just wouldn’t go away. I arrived there between 9:00 and 9:30 pm, and eventually left around 5:00 am. While there I underwent three scans, numerous lab tests, and a few discussions with the doctor.

[…]

The bottom line is this: After the rather strong medication they gave me for pain wore off, the pain was gone and hasn’t returned. But nobody has any idea where it came from or where it went.

[…]

A couple of days ago I got the bill for all this. The initial bill for that incident was over $13,000. With the amount that is generally disallowed by the insurance company, the amount that will actually be paid to the hospital is over $10,000. My portion appears annoyingly large, but is actually blessedly small, all things considered. I have good health insurance.

The post goes on from there talking about insurance, costs, and heathcare policy. How he used his families medical expertise to discuss what happened, what the prognosis was and how to go forward.

But there are two things missing in this account.

God and the Church.

The problems, which my initial sally into this healthcare and Christian response to health alluded to all come up in this post. His response, as I noted above, is, I think, fairly typical. If I or my family go to the emergency room, the first person I call is not my priest (or as Mr Neufeld is priest of his parish … his deacon or elders). In all things in our life our first thoughts should be of God. If we look at St. Paul’s epistles, what would be his first response to a medical emergency look like? It seems obvious it would thought would of God, to pray, give thanks and ask for guidance. His second might be flock. His third would be to himself and the particulars of his condition. Shouldn’t we try do likewise?

How might that account have played out if God and Church. How would this possible account look as compared to the one above:

I’m 50 years old, and a few weeks ago I made my first visit to the emergency room. (Just for interest, I have never been admitted to a hospital in my life for any reason.) I had pain in my upper abdomen, quite severe, and it just wouldn’t go away. I arrived there between 9:00 and 9:30 pm. A few hours later a few brethren from my parish joined us, and kept me company with prayer and cheerful companionship when I wasn’t undergoing three scans, numerous lab tests, and a few discussions with the doctor. Phone trees were alerted before I arrived (or e-mail listserve, SMS, or other e-notification method) and went to work and my parish and sister parish’s prayer circles were informed. We all eventually left around 5:00 am in good spirits and giving praise to God that my health seemed intact. The only thing remaining was that as people went to work, we had to fend off offers for asisstence and aid as it appeared thankfully by that time that it would not be necessary.

What would it take for that second account to be the norm, not the former? For isn’t that how it should play out when any of us, in our parish community has an emergency of any kind? There is no sign in the first account, that if things had not been going well, that Mr Neufeld’s illness would be any sort of Christian witness. It seems to me, if that were to be the case, his account could of (should of) looked like the one noted above.

Now I’m not going to suggest (as well) that the practical healthcare issues do not matter. But it seems to me that the Christian response virtually has been completely set aside and ignored in the wake of the medical technological advances of the last century and a half. Our prosperity, technology, and mobility have diminished our sense community which in turn has affected our notion of ecclesial community.

Filed under: Christianity • Culture • Mark O. • Religion

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