The healthcare debate rages across this country or at least the astroturf movement is grabbing headlines. However, no one has addressed this issue, what would Jesus do? Really, ask yourself, “what would Dr. Jesus do?” I think we all know the answer.
As we all know from Sunday School, many of the miracles Jesus performed were medically related. The medical litany of Christ is rather lengthy but in interest of our current debate, let’s list them here. Jesus cured all of the following: fever, dropsy, paralysis, long term bleeding, withered hands, blindness, deafness, and we should probably add the 3 folks he raised from the dead (not including himself). What I’m sure of is that after performing these medically related miracles, Dr. Jesus Christ never once asked for a co-pay. In fact, I don’t think he even asked one of these folks if they were covered.
The raising of the dead is a medical miracle to be certain. Imagine the cash you could make off of that? Look at the cash Pfizer has made raising middle-aged men’s dead johnsons, but raising whole dead bodies would be a gold mine. Now I’m not a medical guru but I do know that being dead is the leading cause of death in the United States. Death far surpasses lung cancer, heart disease and breast cancer COMBINED! Death has been with us since Cain and Abel, I think. A recent medical study revealed that ALL humans, that’s me and you, are genetically predisposed to death.
With the forgoing in mind, Dr. Jesus cured death, 4 freaking times! Did he get a patent on this method or procedure? Did he license this technology to Glaxo or Pfizer? Nope he did it for free, sort of a one man socialized medical regime. Going forward, when one of the healthcare haters comes at you, just say “WWDJD” or “What Would Doctor Jesus Do?”
Well this won’t answer your question directly but here goes.
Secretary of Defense Gates announced a few weeks ago that he was going to add an additional 22k people to bolster the ranks of the US Army.
Sooooooo, if 22k of the people who have lost their job would join the US Army then there would be (potentially) 22k more families with immediate and FREE health care!
HA!
Incidentally, Jesus DID NOT heal all. (all, many, some, few and none) It appears that even Jesus was regulated by the people around Him.
The people who got the rawest deal were those who were raised from the dead. Imagin being in Paradise only to have to come back to ths dusty streets of Egypt and the likes!
@ Mssc54: Jesus was regulated by several things- the biggest being what he saw his Father doing (in his own words) and one other being people’s faith.
@Mr. Politiporn: Good to see you writing again!
The big man is back! Go to see.
I do have to disagree slightly. In one case Jesus did come across a girl who wasn’t covered (Matthew 15:21-28) and actually denied her claim initially. Turns out he healed her anyway. Jesus was way cool.
Well, I guess we should all be like Jesus ..That is if our healing powers came without over $100,000 debt to become a doctor and the malpractice law suites that many Lawyers get rich from. Jesus did not have to deal with these obstacles. I don’t see many Lawyers looking to provide their services dirt cheap so why should doctors?
Speaking of Lawyers! Why don’t the politicians look for some sanity out of the malpractice lawsuits that are a significant reason why health insurance cost are so high?
It wouldn’t have to do with that fact that many congressmen are lawyers themselves would it? So, does the real solution to the health car crises lie in a government solution or does it lie in legislation itself?
Also Jesus can be proven to be no more real than Yoga from Star Wars. So why not ask what would Yoga do as well?
@Cellar-Door – well, first let me point out that it’s “Yoda” not “Yoga”. I’ve never been a big Star Wars fan but I’m pretty sure of that.
The old Tort Reform argument. I love this one. Republicans have trumpeted tort reform as the means to end all that is wrong in health care. The theory being, if we make it harder for folks to bring suit against doctors then the doctor’s malpractice insurance premiums will go down and they will pass the savings on to the patient. Keep dreaming.
Some quick facts on Medical Malpractice -
-Less than 1% of all doctors currently practicing in the US will be subject to a Medical Malpractice lawsuit during their entire career.
-Counter that with – between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year due to preventable medical errors (granted these errors are not only the fault of doctors but you can bet hospitals would hide behind any immunity granted to their doctors).
-The cost of all US malpractice suits comes to less than one-half of 1 percent of health-care spending.
-Records maintained by the National Center for State Courts show that population-adjusted tort filings declined from 1992 to 2001. The average change in tort filings was a 15% decrease.
-Despite the Republican mantra that tort cases, namely med. mal. cases have explode in numbers over the years, The Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), found that the number of civil trials dropped by 47% between 1992 and 2001.
-The Department of Justice is that the median inflation-adjusted awards in all tort cases dropped 56.3% between 1992 and 2001 to $28,000.
Tort reform is a myth. Plus, tort reform isn’t just aimed at reducing the liability of Doctors, it is also aimed at reducing strict and products liability claims against manufacturers.
Finally, tort reformers always forget to ask the obvious question. Who benefits most from this fabricated idea that doctors are being sued by the boat loads? The answer…The insurance companies. Funny, they seem to be benefitting from our screwed up health care system too.
@Everybody Else – just remember – next time someone brings up “Tort Reform” in reference to the healthcare debate – know one thing – they do not have clue what they are talking about just like our friend Cellar-Door.
So you can read statistics but cleary you don’t have an understanding of the economics behind it and the impact malpractice suits have on overall health care cost. The solution to health care should start with reducing the excessive cost before getting government involved in absording it.
“The fee for service pricing model coupled with medical practice liabilties combine to create incentive to overtest patients. It is this preverse incentive to test more regardless of effectiveness which is at the root of our runaway health care costs. The House (Obama) plan reforms neither fee for service, nor medical malpractice, and consequently will fail to contain health care costs.”
Excessive testing may be an unnecessary expense… Unless of course the “excessive test” reveals something that saves YOUR LIFE.
Are “excessive tests” excessive only when they don’t find something? Is a test only deemed necessary when it saves a life?