The Original Public Option
3Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. – I Timothy 5:3-4
For nearly two thousand years the poor and the destitute relied upon a publicly funded health care system. This public system was operated by an organized body of philanthropic leaders, who’s purpose in providing that care was nothing more than their sense of duty to the people to whom they were providing care.
Certainly there was, from time to time, corruption and misuse of both the public funds and the people who needed care. This corruption was not the norm, it was the exception.
For nearly two thousand years there was a publicly funded welfare system for the elderly. This system provided housing, food and transportation for those people who could not fend for themselves.
As the world began to modernize, modern medicine bloomed from this tradition of public care. Every major university, every major hospital, every orphanage was originally begun through this public source of funding.
In modern times this public system has been overrun with legislation, corporate greed, and public disinterest. These hospitals were offered government funds, and along with the funds came government oversight. To stay competitive and these organizations had to provide better facilities, better wages to skilled workers, and gain better equipment. To pay for these bills they needed to consolidate, to corporatize. The public began to be distanced from these places because even the most simple minded could see that they were no longer concerned with patient care so much as market share.
The system began to feed upon itself; higher costs for educating doctors, higher penalties for doctor’s failures driven by higher costs in patient care. The system of insurance that had begun with simple collected funds for distribution to the needy became a banking center, a financial fund for investment brokering.
Now we are told that the government must step in and make things right. The government forgets that laws are meant to punish, not to permit. Each citizen will be forced to pay for the corruption of the minority, which in turn will put more money into the system, driving the desire for corruption even higher.
We have forgotten why all of this began to fail in the first place. A man once said that when it comes to government “the amateur talks about ideology, the professional talks about special interests.” That’s because the corrupt know that by dividing special interests against each other those special interests must fight for their place. This causes the politician to gain power through proxy.
The idea of a professional politician is the corruption that causes this current problem. It is the endemic issue. The current public option is nothing more than a means of securing the interests of a special interest group; healthcare providers. If your lives depend upon your income, and your income is dependent upon the government, who are you going to support at the polls?
This is why hospitals turned corporate. This is why doctors seek licenses to practice. This is why insurance companies work so hard to avoid payouts. It is ideology which drives this whole debacle.
Once upon a time people cared for each other because they understood that it was God’s commandment to honor their father and their mother. It was the duty of the young to pay back their parents for the care and providing they had received. Now you’re lucky if a child gets a chance to know his grandparents before the parents divorce and remarry. For that matter, if the parents get married at all.
Once upon a time people took in orphans and widows who really needed care and gave them food, shelter and a chance at a trade. The stories of corruption and abuse were the exception, as was the incidence of abandonment. Parents stayed married out of a sense of duty, even if they didn’t feel constantly “in love” with each other.
Once upon a time the church of Christ was allowed to give medical care, food, shelter and support to the community without lawyers and politicians crying out for a separation of the church from the state. The media and schools have downplayed the role that Christianity has had on the formation of modern medicine and healthcare so that no one seems to remember the original public option.
One thing is certain: any public option run by a government of career politicians will only ever do one thing; serve the interests of the politician.
America knows it needs a change. America understands that what it’s being offered in the form of change right now is not the kind of change they want. America also understands that it has a loss of understanding about exactly what option for change is the correct option. That’s because America has had it soul ripped from it’s body. Because of this, no change will ever give America back her life except one change; regain the soul of Western Civilization, and of it’s pinnacle achievement that is America.
Change, true change, must come from within the individual. You can either accept pressure from the iron fist of government, or you can drink from the wellspring of life; it’s your choice.
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