Pain: A Reflection on Christianity and Healthcare

What I want to say here is both simple and not-so-simple.  It is simple to the spiritual self, but it goes against the "natural man."  Only that doesn't sound right, for when I'm out in my garden, softness is the most natural thing in the word.  Perhaps, I should say that it goes against "civilized man":  man of society; man of progress; man of obstacle and overcome; man of arrival and importance; man of ego.  I want to say it carefully, because it is a message that should be heard, even if only by a few, and people tend not to listen if they think they are being taught.  We resist change.

But we need change.  Not revolution, but evolution--a soft, weathering away of individual and cultural egos, so that light and divinity shines through.

This past Friday evening I experienced, what for me, was unbelievable pain.  I had a second attack of epididymitis, which causes acute scrotal pain.  I know pain is relative, and what for me was unbearable might be tolerable by someone else.  But it was so strong, that at that moment, all I could think is cure me or kill me.  My whole body and mind was terrorized by the pain centered in my scrotum.  I didn't care about life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.  I didn't care about family.  I didn't even care about myself.  I just cared about ending the pain.

We tend to think of liberty as the most fundamental human right.  But anyone who has experienced excruciating pain knows there can be no freedom while in the iron grasp of pain.  Bodily ills are a vital part of mortality, and we will never be free from pain.  Acute pain demands to be heard.

But maybe pain, like so many ills in this life, is not meant for the sufferer.  Maybe pain is meant for the rest of us: those not hospitalized, not bed-ridden, not helpless.

I always had a problem with a world designed on pain:  the eat or be eaten world of evolution, which is all around us, undeniable, if we use our eyes and intellect.  Just a few days ago, I watched a black wasp drag a dead tarantula from one side of my garden to the other for about seventy feet.  What clearly was the fortune of the wasp clearly was not good for the tarantula, who probably experienced great pain that the wasp might prosper.

What type of God would set up such a universe?  No wonder people become atheist.  Who can blame them?   The evidence is there.  No just God would devise such an eat or be eaten world.

That is the only rational conclusion when we see through temporal eyes.  But, if spirits are eternal, as is progression, and becoming perfect is the ultimate goal--what better way to become fully divine than to lose yourself in the pain and affliction of others?

This was Christ's ultimate message.  Lose your ego in the service of others.  Ultimately, it is our only purpose here.  And each of us knows it.  It is embedded in our DNA.  It would be the most natural thing in the world if Satan wasn't working on us through the ego. Kindness, gentleness, softness is who we are at our core, and it is what we are here to remember.  The question is, can we give enough of the self away to recognize who we are?

And not just as individuals.  As societies too.    When Christ says,  If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me" (Mathew 19:21),  it is not for the sake of the poor he requires this.  He has already declared that the poor are blessed simply by their circumstance.  The giving is for those that have.  It is opportunity to soften the ego and become one with the "least of these."

We will be judged by this ability to be humble and giving--both as individuals and as societies.  Healthcare is as much of a right as liberty.  There can be no true happiness, no true joy, while locked in the grasp of pain. Perhaps individual spirits were giving enough in the preexistence to take on that mission.  But our moral duty, both as individuals and as societies, now is to do everything we can to alleviate the suffering of others without worrying about costs or plausibility.  That is to be in God's hands.  Moral individuals, moral nations, will step up to heal the sick and afflicted without a second thought.  Christ even provided the perfect example.

It baffles me that many of those who base their lives on Christ do not realize how providing healthcare is fundamental to being Christian.  Christ was a walking hospital who gave healthcare free of charge to anyone in need.  If we, as individuals and as a nation, follow his lead, nothing but prosperity can come from such openness.
  





         

Gilead Sciences Inc. Requires $84,000 Ransom before Freeing Hostages of Hepatitis C: Clearly Christ was a Poor Business Man.

How much is a life worth?  Apparently saviors and holy men are not the only ones to place a high value on human life.  Thugs have been doing it for centuries, though usually not legally.  Kidnap someone’s precious and he’ll pay you whatever he can get his hand on morally or immorally.  The Supreme Court has basically ruled corporations are people, a notion I wrote off as ridiculous, but maybe it’s not.  The drug company, Gilead Sciences Inc., the manufactures of sofosbuvir, sold as Sovaldi, is charging $1,000.00 per pill in a treatment price that will cost patients $84,000.00 to save their lives.

In a recent interview with NPR (see link below), Gregg Alton, a vice president at Gilead, said, "We didn't really say, 'We want to charge $1,000 a pill…. We're just looking at what we think was a fair price for the value that we're bringing into the health care system and to the patients."

This makes me think that Christ, though savior of the world, was clearly a horrid business man.  How much could Living Christ Miracles Incorporated have charged to bring Lazarus back from the dead?  How much could Living Christ Miracles Incorporated have pumped into not only the economy of Jerusalem, but into the economy the entire middle east, even the Roman Empire?  Just think, Jerusalem could have had the greatest healthcare system of the ancient world if Christ had only known “how to charge a fair price for the value” he was “bringing into the health care system and to [His] patients."

As a society, we know, unlike Christ, we fall short of perfection—some of us, like Gregg Alton, very short of perfection.  That is why we regulate. That’s why it is illegal for me to march into a millionaire’s home, kidnap his daughter and put an $84,000 ransom on her sweet, blond head.  Yet, for some reason, as a society we feel, on the one hand, corporations should have the free-speech rights of an individual, and yet on the other hand, none of the legal responsibility of an individual.

I know I’m over-simplifying.  I’m doing it on purpose.  Sometimes morality is simple.  Sometimes evil is clear.  It is, without question, evil to charge $1,000 for a pill that costs at the very highest estimates $100 per pill—especially when that pill means the difference between life and death.

In a world without the influences of Satan, one would be fundraising to provide $100 pills that could save someone’s life for free rather than charging 10 times that to line the pockets of CEO’s and stock holders. 

But there is evil in this world and it is not always only associated with the pornography industry.  It’s time Christians, and anyone else with moral values, regardless of creed, stand together and demand a moral society.  Universal, affordable healthcare is part of that society.  Christ didn’t heal only those who could afford it and neither should society.  Blood ransom is not moral in any circumstance.

This, I know, is simple thinking.  Morality often is.

NPR is a little more objective than I am, and you can access their blog through the links below. 

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=256885858&m=258301793

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/30/256885858/-1-000-pill-for-hepatitis-c-spurs-debate-over-drug-prices

Postscript:   Morality Is Simple, but Not Easy:  Hypocrisy Comes Naturally

I’m not sure why I blog, other than that there is something deeply satisfying about putting thoughts to page and getting them out there to an audience, no matter how small, almost immediately.  It comes close to the satisfaction one receives giving a public reading. 

But, like a public reading, it has its drawbacks.  One is it’s difficult to take back what you put out there into the universe.  Of course, this is true with all forms of communication, but because traditional publication is such a long, drawn-out process, with lots of polite rejections prior to acceptance, not to mention the revision dialogue after acceptance, there is lots of time to reflect prior to publication.

Anyway, my previous blog post doesn’t sit well with me.  I used some faulty logic and cheap propaganda techniques, but that’s not what bothers me.  Some things need to be said.  Sometimes it’s better to say something rash, out of anger, than say nothing at all.  What bothers me is that I made a personal attack against someone I absolutely do not know: Gregg Alton, a vice-president for Gilead Sciences Inc.

As a society, we know, unlike Christ, we fall short of perfection—some of us, like Gregg Alton, very short of perfection. 

I have no way of knowing how far short of perfection Gregg Alton falls.  For all I know, he’s a wonderful father, a kind supervisor, and perhaps even very generous with his donations to the community.  And to be honest, if I was a vice president for a drug company that basically developed a miracle drug, I too might be tempted with the following thought:

"We didn't really say, 'We want to charge $1,000 a pill…. We're just looking at what we think was a fair price for the value that we're bringing into the health care system and to the patients."

Although that's a natural human reaction to success, it doesn’t justify the price.  I stand by my claim that in effect Gilead Sciences Inc. is requiring an $84,000 ransom before freeing hostages of Hepatitis C.   That act simply is immoral.

But speaking out against policy and attacking individuals are two very different things.  Though I consider myself overall to be a good person, I have sank to some pretty deplorable acts in my past.  I am in no position to judge the content of character of others. 

Thus, the need to apologize:  My readership is small, and I doubt Greg Alton will ever read my post on Gilead Sciences, Inc. but that doesn’t change the fact that my attack was wrong.

I could erase my previous post, but I don’t want to.  Though flawed, it makes some good points.  So instead, I will attach this to it.    

Hopefully, I learn to reflect a little before hitting the “publish” button and don’t have to do this too often.