Saturday, September 12th, 2009

And so it Begins ...

Welcome to my new blog!  For those who don’t know me, before becoming Rabbi of Tikvat Israel Congregation, I served in the US Congress as a chief counsel on a Senate subcommittee.  In fact, I was involved in politics from junior high school on, since my father entered that world when I was age 2.  Despite my political background, I rarely, if ever, talk about political issues from the bimah.  Sadly, politics often polarizes communities, and I always want Tikvat Israel to be a community that welcomes all, regardless of political affiliation.  However, I do believe there should be a Messianic Jewish voice on public policy.  Consequently, this blog will endeavor to address public policy issues on a weekly basis.  Rather than taking positions on most issues, I will seek to examine them through the lens of Scripture and other sacred texts, raising issues that often get lost in the maze of sound byte hysteria.  Please feel free to respond below in the comment area.  I will filter the comments to ensure posts are free of vulgarity and personal attacks.

A few months ago our local newspaper, Richmond Times Dispatch, ran an article about religion and health care.  The author argued from Jewish, Christian and Islamic sources that each of the religions support the provision of adequate health care for all people.  Jewish sources are clear on the need for provision of health care.  The Talmud contains numerous references to assisting the sick.  Of course, one of Yeshua’s primary ministries was to heal the sick, and he instructs his followers to pray to and minister to them.  All things being equal, who could oppose adequate health care for all people?  However, extending this reasoning to national and governmental policy is more problematic, especially when the structure of the current health care system is a complete mess. 

An example is in order: By and large health care in America is driven by insurance.  Yet unlike other forms of insurance, i.e., life, auto, etc., health insurance is not true insurance.  Insurance is a system of generally known and accepted principles of risk.  For instance with respect to life insurance, you pay a premium to a company who guarantees upon your death your beneficiaries will receive a certain sum.  Based on your age and health, the insurance companies use actuarial tables to determine an adequate premium.  Barring a huge catastrophe, they know out of a hundred people, how many will die at various ages.  Hence, life insurance costs stay relatively constant.  Health insurance doesn’t work that way.  The very nature of health insurance increases costs.  When one is insured and is thus insulated from the cost of visiting a physician or hospital, the individual will utilize health care services more.  This is unlike life or other forms of insurance where the provision of the insurance does not increase the likelihood of the event being insured.  Life insurance does not cause us to die earlier nor does auto insurance cause us to have more accidents. 

Every health care proposal being seriously considered in the Congress simply overlays governmental mandates upon the current health care and insurance systems.  Governmental subsidies will ensure individual premiums don’t go through the roof.  The reality is that whatever version or hybrid thereof passes, government costs will seriously escalate.  Current federal deficits are unsustainable.  Something has to give. While there are strong Biblical and religious arguments for national health care, there are counter arguments from the same sources regarding the accumulation of debt, such as the “borrower is servant to the lender.”  (Proverbs 22:7) Our national debt to other nations, especially China, is astounding.  Without a program to get our national finances in order, every great idea including national health care, sadly will ensure our quicker demise as a prosperous and generous nation.  If proponents of national health care were more honest, they would admit the huge cost of such a program and propose either significant tax increases or corresponding federal spending reductions. 

Where am I on national health care?  I’m for it but not now.  Changes should be made incrementally to the existing system.  In the long run new and creative alternatives to payment for health care must be considered.