The Health Care Crisis and the Nonprofits |
Nov 7, 2009 |
Have you heard enough bantering on the health care crisis? Does anyone have a real answer? Will we become like Canada? Will my company get taxed out of business? Is health care an inalienable right?
You may be wondering how a blog on fundraising may be the best place to post ideas about health care, but there is a massive issue I don’t hear being discussed on any forums about health care. This idea does impact us all, especially nonprofits. The impact I am talking about is not how health care plans will impact your organization, but why we have a health care crisis.
We do face a health care crisis, but I postulate that those leading the debates have left out the most important issue. We can debate rationing health care, the impact of illegal aliens, the sky-rocketing costs, tort reform and more, but there is a fundamental issue causing the health care crisis that has been left out of the debate.
What we face is a moral crisis, not a health care crisis, where people’s personal lifestyles are causing a run on a health care system much like an economic crisis causes a run on banks. There are not enough resources to provide health care for a people who are self-destructing. To put it mildly, we are killing ourselves. A simple look at the World Health Stats for the past year shows that as a nation the top killers of America are self caused—from overeating, smoking, and unhealthy lifestyles. America’s killers are not malaria, TB or polio; they are HIV/AIDS, heart attacks and cancer. We are disease producers, based on our behavior. This is the root of the health care crisis. We, as a nation, cannot build a large enough health care system to meet the needs of a society that produces diseases and demands catastrophic coverage. The solutions being bantered around Washington will not succeed. There is no solution to this crisis other than as a people, ridding ourselves of the issues that destroy our health.
Thomas Jefferson understood this issue over 200 years ago and his quote shames our people and leaders:
The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.
So, how does this affect nonprofits? It is a monumental issue that people are creating needs faster than any government or private sector can meet. Even God won’t stop our self destructing behavior, but we as a people think we can fix this problem. Becoming a welfare state is not a solution. What we need is a culture that redefines the difference between real need and moral problems, and stops putting band aids on wounds that reach the soul.
The church and the nonprofit sector have greater power to address these issues than any legislator. These self-destructive people are coming to our doors. Will we give them band aids or will reach their soul?
