I know most, if not all, of you have heard about the healthcare CEO being gunned down in Manhattan by a presumed assassin. The casing of the bullet used to murder United Health CEO Brian Thompson had the words "delay," "deny," and possibly "depose." These three words are in reference to the insurance industry motto heaped onto it by its critics. Delay
payment and process of claims, deny claims at all costs, and depose of all evidence supporting the claim.
I am no fan of insurance companies, but of course that does not mean that people who work in insurance or manage the companies should be gunned down in cold blood. However, the shooter in this case as well as the majority of people who work in insurance have been fed a lie
and this lie has caused many deaths, not just Brian Thompsons.
The lie is this...Insurance companies and governments and the rich can afford to pay for our health care. Simply put, they cannot. Healthcare as advanced as ours is, is just too costly. There is not enough money to go around to give quality timely health care to everyone. But we think this is possible via political
talking points, drug commercials, and doctor assurances.
It is true that health care costs have gone off the rails due to lobbying, poor health choices by the masses, food and drug companies being incentivized to make us unhealthy, and so much more. However, even in a perfect situation where drug commercials are outlawed (like everywhere else in the world), people in general eat
healthy diets and exercise regularly, and lobbying is cleaned up and done away with, we would still face crazy costs because we have outstanding needs and wants.
Think about it this way. We are all mortal, and there are big incentives (Money and loved ones) to develop drugs, practices, and procedures for extending life. To develop these things it takes time, intense ingenuity, and lots
of capital. Plus given that we live in a fallen world there will always be the tragedies of children born with bone cancer or some other life threatening and debilitating disease. So, you see, even in the perfect scenario our health runs outs and people will be willing to spend everything they got to get their health back, yet eventually your health leaves you. Healthcare has a supply and demand problem at its core. The demand is infinite, and the supply is finite...very finite. Even if all the
billionaires of the world put their money into one big pot and said use this money for health care, that pot would dry up really quick and we would probably just end up promoting a culture of transhumanism (trying to live forever young) that would of course end in failure or moral depravity because this reality is not our home, full communion with God is.
Now I am of course not
suggesting we abandon the pursuit of curing diseases and giving people access to quality health care at an affordable price. However, we must define our goals and orient them in the proper way to the proper ends. Insurance companies are money making endeavors and this is why I have suggested many times to ditch the insurance companies and get on a health share ministry. My family uses Samaritan Ministries, and we love it. It saves us thousands of dollars per year both in premiums and when
medical situations arise. The reasons it saves us money is because it is non-profit that eliminates hospitals from having to deal with insurance companies which is the main driver of health care costs.
Insurance companies are just one more thing that replaced communities. We continually turn to corporations for security because we have no faith in our fellow man to do good unless
his pockets are being filled. The fictional Gordon Gecko was wrong when he said Greed is good, in fact the opposite is true, Charity is good. Insurance companies could certainly do better, but we are asking a profit driven entity to forgo profits and care about people. We should stop lying to ourselves that the greed incentive can be fixed. Instead, we should embrace community driven programs like Samaritan Ministries, take responsibility for our own health, and accept the fact that our health
and life will end. In the meantime, our goal is not to live disease free, but to be saints, and sometimes a deteriorating health is the push we need towards sainthood.
Please pray for soul of Brian Thompson and the murderer and all those affected by corruption and tragedy.
Welfare = Theft & False Security
Charity = Sainthood
