Every Argument is a Theological Argument

Health Care Systems

Having lived in Britain for twenty five years I can say that most of the conservative American horror stories about the National Health Service are baloney. The British National Health Service provides pretty good basic care for the whole population. It has it's problems however. It's expensive. It is riddled with corruption. It is inefficient. It is top heavy with bureaucracy.

But the American system is riddled with corruption. Fat cats run hospitals to make a profit and get rich at the expense of sick people. Huge pharmaceutical companies rake in huge profits selling overpriced drugs to desperate people. Insurance companies rake it in. Kickbacks, corruption and graft drive prices of healthcare up for everyone and the first thing people in American think about when they get sick is, "How much is it going to cost?"

What makes me wonder is that the majority of people think that the problem is the system. "If we only had socialized health care that would solve the problem." or "If we only had more rules to get rid of the corruption and regulate the system, that would solve the problem." "If we could only reform the insurance industry..." Everybody has a good idea on the system level, but aren't they all missing the point?

Any system is only as good as the people in it. Britain's socialized National Health Service would be a dream if the people in it were honest, hard working, compassionate and self sacrificial. Likewise, the American private health care and insurance industries would work like a dream if the people within them were honest, hard working, compassionate and self sacrificial. Both systems are just systems. Both (as systems) have strengths and weaknesses. Both would work well if the people within them worked well.

G.K.Chesterton said, "Every argument is a theological argument." Same here. The reasons the systems are no good is because the people within them are not good, and how do we make bad people better? It is pointless simply appealing to some sort of moral code. Moral codes on their own are arbitrary. People are not dumb. They look at a moral code and ask "Why?" Without any higher principle for a moral code the moral code remains an encrypted code. A moral code without any higher being behind it is no more than a made up rule, so why should I obey it?

Systems are only made better when people are made better and people can only be made better by something called Grace, and grace can only be discovered through contact with the source of Grace, and that is why the Christian faith is not just an option, but a necessity.

 

This article was written by: Fr. Dwight Longenecker

I am saving it here in my notebook for personal reference. Full credit goes to Fr. Longenecker.

Images are my addition but I have not edited written content in anyway.