It’s been difficult to watch the debate, passage and response to health care reform from Malawi. As I sit with friends though misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis, pray with a neighbor who watched his son die without a diagnosis, and worry about what Wilson and Finna will do in the four months we’re gone without access to the clinics and medicine we have been able to afford, I’m sad and stunned to read the ire and hateful messages regarding the passage of this bill.
We have chosen to live in a developing nation, chosen to live without a salary, chosen to live among the poor. And we also choose to pay for medical bills of those we love. I don’t deny or minimize the effect these decisions have on my views and don’t expect others to do the same, understand or agree with those views. But those circumstances, nevertheless, create the lens through which I see events unfolding at home.
My political views when we lived in the USA with a six-figure salary would have been the same as they are now. But from a much more isolated and academic point of view. Reading in the New York Times this morning that the legislation will mean that those who make over $250,000 will be taxed to help pay for those making less than $80,000 makes sense to me – practically, morally and theologically. We made closer to the $80,000 than the $250,000 but we were wealthy and I understand how all that money flows out each month just as quickly as those making much less. I understand additional taxes and expenses are a burden in any tax bracket.
But how can citizens who love their country so much that they put the flag in their church sanctuaries be so hostile about providing the citizens of that same nation equal health care? What national ideals do we worship so fervently that are in such violent conflict with the health of the individuals who make up that nation?
I am about to attend the funeral of a 10-year-old boy whose parents watched him die waiting for a neurologist from Lusaka, Zambia to arrive and read his brain scan. In a country where there are 40 surgeons for 17 million people there are more stories like this than one could bear to hear or to tell.
So today I am even more biased than I was before I left America. My friends, family and husband call me a bleeding heart liberal. Today I understand that metaphor. My heart has been painful in my chest for over a month, bleeding for those I cannot help, for systems I cannot fix.
But in the USA, Congress has taken steps to fix the system for thousands, millions, of people. To make sure that the innumerable surgeons, the sanitary and even beautiful waiting rooms, the undiluted and life-saving medications, the functioning and accurate equipment, the educated and trained personnel are available to those who need it regardless of income, employment status, or pre-existing conditions.
When I sat with our friend Lucy several weeks ago on a stone bench, in a waiting room where mothers fetched mops to clean up their own children’s urine, I prayed a prayer that I never imagined I would pray for anyone but my children. I placed my hand on Lucy’s back and prayed that God let all my strength and health flow to her, to revive her, to ease her pain. After such an experience, such a change of heart, how much easier to give a portion of my money. This bleeding heart will have to let it go.
Wow. This really puts a lot into perspective for me, Kara.
Kara, thank you for these words. I agree with everything you said, and I’ve been thinking about all of this in light of what you and Jeff and the kids are experiencing in Malawi. I, too, have become unapologetic about my belief that health care is a right, and that no one should die just because he or she is poor. Thank you for your witness on this issue, and for your meaningful reflections on it.
From one bleeding heart to another—
Kara, I too have been appalled at the way the health care debate has gone. Of course everyone worries about their money, but as a Christian I know that people are more important. I think that most people who are healthy think that this will never affect them, but wait until they have a child who is treated for a major illness who might not then qualify for insurance later in life. This needs to be fixed. I don’t know if this is the right fix, but at least it’s a start in the right direction. We are the wealthy nation on earth but we have forgotten the poor and less fortunate. It is time to act. I guess my heart is bleeding as well.
I have been ready your blog for a couple months now. I actually met Lanecia last summer when we both took our youth groups to Heifer Ranch in Arkansas. I read about your family in a UM magazine and saw you were from her church. Then I looked up your blog. Thank you for writing this. I’ve been so torn in thinking about how crazy people get on either side of this issue, but mostly on the conservative side. I’m a UM minister of a pretty traditional and conservative congregation and I’ve always considered myself liberal. It’s hard to know what, if anything I want to say about the health care issue, or any other. Thanks for being bold in stating your opinions – I agree with what you’re saying. I’ve been to Kenya twice now and am completely in love with Africa. I can’t wait for the day I can go back. My husband and I have talked about living there for a while. You are a “trial-run” for us to see what it might be like.
Blessings to you,
Annie
Grand Junction, CO
I personally have a huge problem with the passage of the healthcare bill, but I don’t have a problem with what you’ve said at all. I simply believe that if Christians would have been up to the task of tithing and giving and taking care of the widows and orphans as the Bible commissions us to do we wouldn’t need this healthcare bill. There is a long and ugly list of reasons we have come to this, and all of it stems from a shortage of love, and an overabundance of greed and selfishness. I do not wish to protect my money at all…I have been very poor and I have been very blessed. In both conditions I have believed and acted on the principle that we are individually responsible first to our God and then to others and finally ourselves. If we got that right we would not need our government to tell us to give by paying taxes, we would give because we could hear the heart of an all loving God giving us the desire and the passion to do it freely. FREELY! There is no better way to give…it is a liberating thing to pour your life into others. Whether it’s financially or physically or spiritually, giving should be a joy, not a law.
Well said…well crafted…well felt
I am in your same mind re health care. Why have we waited until we are the last Western Country to reach out to all of the citizens of this great land! It is monsterous. I hope health care does become an issue in the Presidential election. I dare the conservatives to try to take health care away at any time. The ugly scenes of shooting, and political stabbing is disgusting in any nation and particularly in this “Democracy”. This behavior as of late, lets the newly developed countries think twice about what democracy really means. I could go on and on. Keep the faith, Bill Lovell
Yesterday I took three Golden Triangle people to Faith Medical Clinic. The woman who was sick paid $15.00 for the apt. Then I took them to the Wallmart Pharmacy. The total for two medicines which were inhallers came to over $53.00. She did not have insurance. It happens all the time. Bill Lovell
I think the question of how citizens who love their country as much Americans do can be so hostile about providing their fellow citizens equal health care is extremely relevant and gets to the heart of the matter regarding the health care bill as well as other recent very polarizing political issues in America.
Perhaps to answer that question we need to ask another, which is how do people living in America, regardless of how fervently their worship of national ideals may be, define themselves as Americans? The debate around how to fix health care can’t escape an ideological discussion and examining how Americans find commonalities and differences between themselves can help shed light on why these issues are so polarizing today.
I agree with Mary and have a huge problem with the passage of the healthcare bill. I do though appreciate your thoughts from Malawi as my husband and I went on a mission trip to South Africa in 2005. I think that the government is stepping into our lives too much to force us to pay for the healthcare of others. I think it should be my family’s choice to help others instead of being taxed to do so. The government does not have a good track record for handling funds and I think the churches and private sector would do a better job. No one ever gives more when they are forced to do so, many people will give less by finding ways to “beat the system” causing the burden on the honest people to be even greater. Hopefully the Christian community will step up and create another way for healthcare to be distributed/funded and the government will step back to governing instead of forcing/taxing us to death.