Here's what King Benjamin had to say about it:
Mosiah 4:16-24
16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.
24 And again, I say unto the poor, ye who have not and yet have sufficient, that ye remain from day to day; I mean all you who deny the beggar, because ye have not; I would that ye say in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.
A man gave a talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday about patriotism and the glory of America. One line he said really stood out to me (this is a paraphrase): "Our government is trying to give people goods and services they haven't earned and don't deserve." It hit close to home, as both my daughters' medical expenses are currently paid by the state of Utah. If Claire hadn't been covered by Medicaid, we would have been crushed by the cost of three weeks in the intensive care unit. Would he say we don't deserve that, as my current employer doesn't offer health insurance, and our health plan has a $10,000 deductible? And our situation is much more favorable than that of most people. Since my dad is a doctor we can get prescriptions without having to pay for an office visit. He also gives us treatment for free when we're sick. If Claire is rubbing her ears I don't have to take her into the doctor. I just drop by Dad's office and he checks her out.
It might not be easy to stomach the idea of public health care, but it seems like its benefits far outweigh its costs, even if it means an increase in taxes across the board. My dad favors a public health care plan, and he estimates that every patient he sees who is on Medicaid costs him $10.
What do you think? Does the country need a public health plan? Are uninsured and underinsured people undeserving of health care? Here are a couple of resources you might want to check out:
Wendell Potter talks about his role as an executive at Cigna health care.
3rd Nephi 6:12
Alma 1:30
One last resource
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12 comments:
I agree! Well said.
To be honest with you, I disagree. I don't know about you, but when I receive a government handout (such as WIC which I am currently on) I feel so conflicted. When people are in need they should turn first to their families, second to their church, and as a LAST resort to their government. I think these days we have it turned around. We'd rather ask the government than hurt our pride and ask our families. I know because that is what I've done. When we receive handouts we are in effect giving up our freedom just like brother Kunic talked about. We are all beggars, but we are not government beggars we are beggars to Our God. We must ask God for those things we stand in need of. And we must work for what we need. There are too many people who are unmotivated to go out and work for their living because they receive so many handouts from the government. Are we not supposed to be self-reliant? I know you will disagree with me and that is fine. But at least you know how I feel.
Doesn't that interview with Wendall Potter make you a little sick? I love the point he made about when he realized he was eating on gold plates etc while he was traveling on the corporate jet. I am hoping that someday we will have the opportunity to allow everyone to receive health care if you need it. Believe me I have been there, when the social worker comes into your room and starts talking to you about how you are going to pay for whatever it is, and if you aren't stressed out enough or worried that your loved one won't get better, then to have to worry about how to pay for something that is outrageously priced is very hard. I hope that everyone will be take the time to be more aware and educated on what is going on in our country. I can't believe that major insurance companies are paying Millions of dollars A DAY for lobbying. I don't know about you, but that money could be put to much better use and help lower the costs of health care.
Should I, Rose, have asked my family to foot Claire's immense hospital bill? Would you, as a member of our family, have helped pay? I understand we should go to family first, but I disagree completely with the idea that a public health plan could be an impetus for laziness. I'm not arguing for a welfare state, just available health care for everyone.
Also, I find the distinction between government funding and personal money a bit hazy: Do you suggest we cease all taxation and all government programs? Do you feel your grandparents and others who receive social security are using government money or their own? Most likely Social Security savings they accumulated are long since gone, and the 7.5% (15% if you're self employed) of your income withheld for SS is flowing into their accounts. My point is government money originates from the citizens of the nation, so expenditures that clearly benefit those citizens who have the greatest need are a far cry from sloth-inducing handouts.
I agree with Rose as far as we need to be self sufficient. We should turn to our families, the church and then the govt, but neither our families or the church can give us health care. Becoming self-reliant also means taking advantage of the resources that are out there to help us succeed. I hate that medicaid is set up to allow people to not succeed, because if you start making a little more money etc. you get kicked off. This makes it so people don't want to make more money because they will lose their benefits and not make enough money to cover the costs of getting other health care. They need to have some type of plan that says based on your income you no longer qualify for it being free but can pay a fee to keep it according to how much you make and how much you should be able to afford. After listening to Wendall Potter, I really think that their aren't a lot of people who are too lazy to get a job because they want handouts from the govt. I believe it is something the insurance companies have said to help stop public health care. The article at the end of the post also shed some light on the matter. I don't think we are giving up our freedom to ask for public health care. It should be part of the freedom we enjoy to be able to go to the Dr and receive the care we need. The current system is far from a model of fairness. Since insurance companies negotiate lower rates with Doctors and Clinics, so those who don't have insurance are charged the highest price. If they default, the insured and the govt end up indirectly subsidizing them through higher health care costs. So a public health plan actually increases fairness because everyone would be charged the same amount.
Wow a lot said here. I am so not a political person, but this is such a REAL PROBLEM for families of individuals with disabilities. I could give you a list of families right here in Utah that have lost their home, can't afford the medical needs for their children so they go without. Children's needs are put before parents needs, so the parent suffers. When a parent suffers so do the children. There are families that really do need this, and try not to take advantage, but there are also those that take advantage of the system. SOMETHING has got to be done. Insurance overcharges, doesn't pay out, and gets away with it! I think a lot of it has to do with who pays the politicans. Oh, I could go on and on! I just want "my kids" with Ds to be taken care of :-)
Wow! What an interesting topic. The first thing that I would say is that I don't really think of WIC, medicaid, etc. as a "handout". It is there for a purpose. The problem is the abuse of these programs. It should be there as a help, not as a way of life. There are times when we all need help. We use what we need and then stop when it is no longer needed. As far as Public Health Care goes... Without getting political, what is being pushed at this time is socialized medicine. And yes, I have a good understanding of the President's position on this. If you ask anyone that lives in a place where they have socialized medicine, you will find that a large percentage do not like it. Like I said, we have some good programs through our government, they just need to find a way to stop the abuse of these programs so they could help more of the people who truly need it and are not going to abuse it. Does any of this make sense? I don't think any of you on here who are using these programs should feel guilty because you are using them for the right reasons and are not taking advantage.
you asked me what I thought so here goes (note I am just giving my opinion - I'm not saying this to cause a debate or contention) I don't think that the scripture references refer to a PHC - If the world lived like King Benjamin is talking about then we wouldn't have a need for government run things because we would be living the law of consecration and everyone would just freely give. He is also talking about being spiritually reborn and when a person is spiritually reborn then they experience a "mighty change". "If ye have known of God's goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls. . . ye will not - have mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due. . . And also ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need." Mosiah 4:11,13, 16 King Benjamin isn't giving a mandate or a command it is a promised result that we will want to live our lives that way after we have had a spiritual rebirth. So the world needs to start focusing on their relationship with God and changing the way they live then we would all freely give. But - that probably isn't going to happen because we know that the world is just going to continue to get worse before the second coming so I don't see the world turning more to Christ. President Ezra Taft Benson warned about government run programs in a speech he gave in 1977 to a group of BYU Students - you can find it and read it at speeches.byu.edu - put in President Benson and the year 1977 and it should come right up, if you are interested in reading it. I do think that there needs to be a change in the health care system. I do not agree with the change they are proposing and I do not agree that the government should run the PHC.
It printed my comment twice so I removed one of them!
I believe that Health Care is part of human rights. I don't honestly understand why people accept police force, fire fighters, road works, schools, gabage/recyclable removals run by government acencies but not health care. It seems like a VERY specific allergic reaction to someone like me, who grew up in a civilized country with single-payer government health care.
Health Care industry shouldn't be profit-based. Imagine if police force was out-sourced and private security agencies' goal is to make/save money, instead of protecting people. (Have you heard of Black Water in Iraq?)
Don't prisons offer health care to their inmates, because it is a basic human right? Because it is inhumane not to, isn't it?
Why not for tax-paying citizens and legal residents?
No one has logically explained the opposition to Health Care reform to me.
I don't think you should complain about government run programs unless you're willing to give up the post office, public education (Rose, you'd be out of a job), public transportation, regulation of drugs, alcohol and weapons, etc. Health care shouldn't be a commodity. People shouldn't be able to buy stock in a company whose main goal is to minimize the amount of money it pays to keep its insured population healthy. In 15 years we'll all wonder how this country survived with for-profit insurance companies running things.
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