Who Deserves Health Care?

Here’s a question:  Does every sick person deserve to be treated for their illness?  Seems rather heartless to say, “no.”   But if we say “yes,” and the person who is sick cannot afford care, who is going to pay for it?  The answer to that question is as complicated as Obamacare and the accompanying political drama.

Still, I am interested in the whole question of who deserves care and who doesn’t.  As U.S. citizens we believe in “justice and liberty for all,” and doesn’t a just society require that we provide care?  Would care be for citizens only?  Or does “justice . . . for all,” imply a broader interpretation? 

Who deserves care?  Who is worthy?

Some esteemed members of the synagogue in Capernaum came to Jesus one day asking him to heal the ailing servant of a local Roman officer (Luke 7:1-10).  Romans were Gentiles, considered unclean by Jewish law and custom and thus excluded from Jewish worship and community.  However, these Jewish elders who approach Jesus assure him that this particular Roman is “worthy,” or deserving, of Jesus’ attention because he paid for the construction of the synagogue.  Well, isn’t that the way we usually measure who deserves our attention? 

I suspect that Jesus responds to their request regardless of the worthiness of the Roman officer but because Jesus is a man who provides healing, not because people deserve it, but because he is compassionate (Matthew 9:36).  And followers of Jesus are to be compassionate, too.  We are called to respond to people in need, regardless of our perception of what they deserve. 

I know we have to consider the cost of care.  No society can function without counting the cost of services that it provides.  But if we cut services to people who need medical care can we continue to call ourselves a just society? 

I have to let other people do the math.  In lean times governments need to set budget priorities.  I simply raise the issue because I believe our priorities should be guided by compassion.  And I believe Jesus continues to offer us a perspective on what compassion looks like.

On another occasion (Luke 8:40-56), another esteemed Jewish leader asked Jesus to come heal his twelve-year old daughter who was at the precipice of death.  Surely this man was deserving of Jesus’ attention.  But on the way, a woman on the fringes of society who had, because of her illness, been ritually unclean for the same number of years as the little girl had been alive, approached Jesus for healing.  She had been ostracized by her disease.  Her society judged her unworthy and undeserving of human attention, and unlike the Roman officer of the previous story, she had not paid for a synagogue.  But Jesus delayed his visit to the home of the deserving Jewish leader in order to heal and affirm this “undeserving” woman.

Care should not be based on what we deserve.  Care should be based on compassion.  I pray that both Democrats and Republicans will get their priorities straight.  We deserve no less from our elected officials.