For The Record

Submit birth, marriage and obituary records online.

Personal Ads

Meet new friends today!

Advertising

Put your message in front of 19,000 readers.

PDF documents on this site require the free Adobe Reader:

Get Adobe Reader

2009-10-20 issue:

Troubled by health-care reform premises

by Garlan Yoder, Churchville, Va.

Print Article

I have put a great deal of thought into the editorial and Speaking Out column about the health-care reform issue (Sept. 1), and the conclusions I have reached trouble me immensely. There is first a premise that health-care reform needs to start at the insurance companies and place the shortcomings of the current system almost solely on them. Never have I been a fan of insurance companies and have often accused them of taking advantage of their customers. There are, however, two glaring omissions that I haven’t seen addressed in Mennonite Church USA’s resolution or in any of the current proposed legislation: the outrageous sums of money awarded in malpractice and liability suits and the mountain of mandates the government has placed on the insurance industry, many of which are unnecessary and often ridiculous. Both of these force insurance companies to cover things that are inapplicable to many of their customers, but the customers must pay for them just the same.

The second misplaced premise is a misunderstanding of what a "right" is in our country. Everett Thomas' editorial quotes Rick Stiffney from MHS Alliance saying, "We do support the migration of health care in the direction of [it being a] 'right' rather than a ‘retail commodity.'" Rights differ from privileges in that they are given by an authority who is the only authority that can take them away. From the beginning of our country it was understood that our rights are bestowed on us by God, not the state. So rights could not be taken away by the state, thus the U.S. Constitution. When we start to say the rights are bestowed on us by the government, then the government also has the authority to strip those rights.

Associated Issue: Our Sunday school class - Sept. 1, 2009

Associated Article: What are we to say about health care?

Reader Comments

Add Comments