Thursday, September 03, 2009

Jesus on health care reform

Jesus would be in favor of Medicare for all.

The easy solution to end the health care debate is to allow people the option to buy into Medicare or keep their current insurance. In America 46,000 people are uninsured and 18,000 people a year die from not having any health care coverage; 50 million people a year file bankruptcy because they get sick. Illness is the No. 1 reason people face foreclosure.

Paraphrasing Matthew 25:31, the disciples asked, "Who goes to heaven?" Jesus replied, "The ones who looked after me when I was sick." The disciples said, "We never saw you sick." Jesus said, "No, you were to do unto others as you do unto me."

A little common sense accompanied with facts shows that we need a single-payer health care option and we need it now.

Justin Hughey
Lahaina

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I just had to laugh. The opening sentence in "Everyone deserves Medicare" (Star-Bulletin, Letters, Aug. 25) is "Jesus would be in favor of Medicare for all." This is a weird example of the way we twist a Bible passage to fit our purposes. I, too, am familiar with the whole passage (Matt 25:31-46). Jesus never said that the Sanhedrin, or even the Roman government, should supply care for the people. The writer should have added that, if Jesus would want us to have Medicare, he would also be in favor of government-supplied food, water, clothes, housing and better-run prisons. The letter writer should read that passage again; Jesus puts the onus directly where it belongs — on us. And Jesus also tells us the personal consequences of ignoring these problems.

Arg Bacon

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