This week, we are in the midst of a major push for health-care reform in the U.S. Congress. On Monday, I devoted my column, “Word from Winkler” in our
e-newsletter Faith in Action, to the push. Each day, I intend to write a special message on health care, and the necessity to reform the U.S. system.

My prayer is that you will take action and call and write your members of Congress: Demand that health-care reform legislation include a strong public option. You can reach the offices of your senators and representatives through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

I’m 50 now and have received somewhat disconcerting news from my doctor. A routine check of my blood enabled the doctor to make the diagnosis. I am able to afford to go to the doctor as needed because of my health insurance. Were that insurance to disappear, any illness I contracted would have to be treated as best as I could figure out using over-the-counter medications. Most likely, eventually I would get really sick and end up in an ambulance headed to a hospital emergency room.

When I was 25, I worked for a miserable year on Wall Street for very low wages. The commodities trading firm that employed me had zero interest in offering health insurance, much less pension and sick-leave benefits to the employees they deemed expendable. I was young and healthy. I was fortunate not to suffer any significant illness or get hit by a car on the busy streets of New York or suffer any other accident.

Ironically, as a young and healthy person, I was exactly the sort an insurance company would prefer to insure. Their wager is that I wouldn’t get sick. Therefore, they could make money through the premiums paid by my employer. It’s business, you see; it’s nothing personal. Those insurance companies certainly don’t want to carry a 50-year-old with pre-existing conditions on their books, though. 

Everything I understand about Jesus Christ leads me to the conclusion that we are all together and must care for one another.

Therein lies our problem in this health-care debate. The “philosophy” of one side argues that the market should determine everything, that employers should not be mandated to provide health care for their employees, that a public insurance option would somehow be unfair to private insurance companies. This is the point of view that opposed Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This point of view believes in survival of the fittest.

Everything I understand about Jesus Christ leads me to the conclusion that we are all together and must care for one another. There are Christians who believe Christ’s teachings are quaint and utopian, that his ideals are something we strive for but cannot expect to achieve. They certainly believe Christ's ideals have nothing to do with public policy.

I beg to differ, and so does The United Methodist Church. We believe health care is a basic human right. We believe it is a governmental responsibility to provide all citizens with health care.

Please take action now, sign-up to get updates on health care activities that you can be a part of this summer. And don't forget to contact your members of Congress immediately, urging them to support health-care reform.

Peace in Christ,

Jim Winkler
General Secretary