(This is an invited paper and differs somewhat from our usual format. We thank the author for accepting the challenge of discussing the timely subject of health care, with the attendent concerns of cost, rationing/denial of care, and equality of care for all, from a Christian perspective This first page introduces the subject, with the main portion of the presentation on the second page.)

Who are "The Least of These"?

     The past month and a half has generated more vitriol and ill will in politics than I can remember in a long time. As our nation faces the ever-mounting costs of health-care, we are increasingly forced to wrestle with these direct costs and with the indirect costs of allowing people to fall through the cracks. Although various numbers have been levied in the argument, thirty million seems to be the most conservative estimate of the number of people currently without adequate health insurance in this country. This number covers all kinds of people: naturally, the unemployed have no health-care (since it comes through employers), but even of those employed, many do not work enough hours to qualify for full employee benefits and are thus left struggling to pay bills for everything else. There is sometimes just no money left over to pay an insurance premium as well.
     To make matters worse, it is quite difficult for most of us to get a grip on the specifics of the debate. Those who have framed the legislation and are campaigning for it say one thing, and those opposing it argue that it will have effects that are the complete opposite from what is intended. Unfortunately, not all of us are economists, nor are we all health-care specialists. Even more disconcerting is the knowledge that most of the politicians arguing over the bill(s) are also neither economists nor specialists. What, then, is a Christian to do in order to live most fully into his or her baptism, with regard to health care in 2009?
     Unfortunately, we are given no biblical mandate concerning which way to ask our representatives to vote. Would that it were so simple! However, we have been given a number of biblical passages that demand we hold to certain ideals concerning the treatment of the most marginalized, the most vulnerable in society.

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