;)
Making It Personal
The bills for Terry's care in this battle against cancer have only begun to come in. Never having dealt with this situation before, I began to fear that the cost may well overwhelm us. A bill for her latest CT scan just arrived. It totaled nearly $4,000. It was just one of maybe ten such billings we received this past week. Responding to my anxiety, I called Don Emmert - the DAC benefits officer - to find out how this works and just how good our coverage is. Don is a treasure. He knows his stuff and he knows how to answer questions clearly. I learned that the health care insurance provided to Detroit Conference clergy is excellent and that we will be covered or reimbursed for most if not all of the expenses we can expect to encounter. I breathed a sigh of relief. Both Terry and I felt strengthened for the battle knowing that we have the resources to pay for her treatment.
What a tragedy that the same is not the case for all people in the United States. The present debate over how to pay for health care has taken on a very personal nature for us. Both Terry and I cringe when we think about the 45 million in this country who have no coverage at all. From a Biblical perspective in this modern age this is simply a national sin. We have accepted that health care is the privilege of those who can afford to pay for it rather than a right enjoyed by all. Those who are quick to talk about the United States as a Christian nation, but who still oppose health care coverage for all need to reread Matthew 25 once again.
There are no Nazis beating down our doors. There are no "death panels" except for the ones that come when an insurance company denies coverage that could save a person's life. There is no proposal to take away Medicare coverage from senior citizens. All of these things are examples of evil's old trick - distract people from the real issues of justice and compassion by playing upon their fears. Remember my old guideline for detecting false prophets - If they proclaim what your should fear rather than what you should stand for they are certainly false.
Dave Gladstone