Engaged Christianity

I recently attended a rousing event sponsored by Faith Leaders in Action. Wendell Potter, a former Senior Vice President of Cigna, spoke to a large and energized crowd about the distortions and outright lies promulgated by the insurance industry to define the debate on health care reform and derail any options that would threaten corporate profits. 

Government takeover, socialized medicine, irresponsible folks refusing to purchase insurance~~these were their phrases, their concepts fed to legislators, journalists and the American public.           

            

The truth is that insurance is often not available or affordable to folks who want it. And those who are insured frequently have exorbitant premiums, deductibles and copays, and face the possibility of losing coverage when hit with a serious accident, illness, or family crisis.

            

While there are many reasons we should be concerned by deficits in our current system, Potter and the pastors who spoke that evening focused on the spiritual mandate given by Christ. One particular teaching wove its way through the event.

           

Mark 2:1~12 tells of believers who brought a friend to be healed. Finding the way blocked by crowds, they hoisted their friend atop the home in which Christ was speaking, cut a hole in the roof, and lowered him down to Jesus. While my husband, always the pragmatic smart aleck, saw in this story pushy folks who cut in line and caused a whole lotta repair work, it can be read as a call to an engaged Christianity, one in which the faithful take purposeful and tireless action to enact Christ’s teachings.

            

Potter’s journey from well~paid insurance propagandist to whistle~blower began at a county fairground in Virginia. Curiosity drew him there to witness a free medical event. That curiosity turned to shock as he saw, not tidy booths offering free blood pressure checks and such, but hundreds of people lined up for hours to receive a full range of medical treatment in tents and animal stalls.

            

“It was like being hit with lightning,” Potter reported in a Bill Moyers interview in 2009. “It was...what country am I in?” Soon after, 17~year~old Nataline Sarkisyan died after Cigna denied her liver transplant, and Potter could no longer ignore his Christian calling.

           

“A new commandment I give unto you,” Christ said in John 13:34, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” Christ’s example calls us to love actively, and to take a stand when we see others harmed. Let us unite with Faith Leaders in Action and Wendell Potter in  reminding everyone that profit has no place in health care.

            

We must also begin telling our own health care stories. Mine includes paying $7200 per year in premiums with a $2000 deductible. That's $9,200 that I need to pay each year before my insurance will pay anything! Seems a bit high, doesn't it? A few years back, my husband's insurance refused to pay their full portion of his emergency heart attack treatment because the treating physician's group was not on their preferred provider list, even though they had no providers within 40 miles who could do the relatively routine stent procedure needed. As expensive as our situation is, however, we are among the lucky ones.

I urge you all to share your own stories~~perhaps beginning by adding a comment to this post~~and to listen with open hearts to the experiences of others. Consider, too, joining with others to press for change in your area.

Blessings on us all!

Loanne Marie

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Lotsa completely optional links for ya! Here are links to: 

...the Bill Moyer's interview with Potter;

...an NPR story on the Virginia medical event that changed Potter; 

...two sources of information about the success of grassroots efforts to bring universal health care coverage to Vermonters, Vermont for Single Payer and a story from Salon;

...a story on activists in Oregon pressing for universal coverage there;

...Project Health Colorado, an organization working to turn things around in that state;

...PICO, a national organization that works for health care reform;