Tomorrow’s World - Is there a solution to the health care crisis?

Is there a solution to the health care crisis?

By Tomorrow’s World News Bureau

As the United States Congress struggles to find ways to extend health care to more Americans, looming federal and state budget deficits threaten to derail each of the several plans now on the table. Congress may or may not succeed. But who is ultimately responsible for our health care?

Almost everyone realizes that health-care expenditures in the U.S. are out of control. Yet, with health care costs rising every year, even those with “good” insurance can face bankruptcy due to the deductibles and co-pays their policies require. What can a simple overnight stay in a hospital cost you? Depending on the particular services received—nursing care, medications, diagnostic tests, food, etc.—the cost can easily reach $3,000-$5,000. A week in the hospital will routinely cost $50,000 or more. In 2006, according to a U.S.-government-funded study, the average hospital bill for an uninsured stay was $19,400.

Although tens of millions of Americans struggle with inadequate health care or none at all, the U.S. is widely acknowledged to have the world’s best medical facilities, doctors and teaching hospitals. Every year, foreign students come to study. Even heads of state, and the wealthy of the world, flock to world-class medical facilities across the United States. Citizens of nations with comprehensive nationalized health care systems come to the U.S. when their own nations’ systems can no longer meet their needs. But what use is a health care system that only the wealthiest can afford? As the U.S. is quickly running out of money to provide health care to all who might need it, debates over the “right” to health care rage on. So, what is the answer to the health care crisis?

Abstract policy debates can divert our attention from simple-yet-essential steps we can each take to maximize our health. There is no substitute for taking responsibility for maintaining our own personal physical and mental wellbeing! An ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure! It is far easier to maintain good health than to regain it once it has been lost. Do any of us really want to lose our quality of live and become a burden to our loved ones—and to society in general—because we failed to take responsibility for ourselves when we could? This is not just a medical principle; for Christians, it is a spiritual one as well. “Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? And ye are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19, ASV).

Probably the foundational decision most of us can make is to eat a good diet and maintain a simple routine of daily exercise. A fast-food diet and sedentary lifestyle is adding fat in Americans’ arteries and inches around their midsections! Many do not realize that common fast-food menu items are overloaded with calories and fat. Some are accustomed to driving their cars rather than taking short walks, even when visiting a neighbor just one or two houses down the street! Many expectant mothers, caught up in the stresses of daily living, find it all-too-easy to forget that they are “eating for two.” If more of us would pay proper attention to prenatal and preventative health care, this would dramatically alter the scope of the health crisis and the dispute over how best to care for the all too many sick among us.

Of course, no matter what steps we take to protect our health, there will always be some who, often through no fault of their own—due to injury, old age, or medical crisis—need extra help from family and community (Exodus 2:18-19). But when we fail to take the steps God has asked of us—when we leave the God who created us out of the way we live, individually and as a nation—we see the result in America’s present physical and mental health care dilemma (Deuteronomy 28:58-63).

For deeper insight into strategies for improving and maintaining your own good health, read our article Bible Principles of Health and our informative booklet Does God Heal Today?—they will help you appreciate even more the blessings of living God’s way.

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