Like many other Mississippians I’ve been following the discussions about Medicaid expansion.
The Bible speaks extensively to poverty and the responsibility of the faithful to care for the poor and oppressed. It’s a spiritually-based justice and moral issue. Since we live in a state that is heavily populated with people who claim to be religious and/or spiritual, it stands to reason that we would be a state characterized by actions that are consistent with spiritual teachings. In the case of the current debate over Medicaid expansion, I think those opposed to it may have conveniently — and perhaps unintentionally — compartmentalized their spiritual beliefs.
Psalm 82:3 says that we are to do justice to the afflicted and needy. Amos 5:24 calls for justice to “roll down as waters.” James 1:27 tells us that pure religion is caring for the fatherless and widowed. Go to www.biblegateway.com and search for what the Bible has to say on this subject. You’ll be reading a L-O-N-G time. The message of the Bible is unmistakable. Denying the poor of our state a chance at more equal access to health care is un-biblical. For Christians, a case can be made that it is tantamount to denying access to health care to Jesus himself (Matthew 25:31-46).
Yes, I know the Bible also says a person who will not work should not eat. That is the tired old argument based on falsehoods that many use to justify hatefulness and to lambaste the programs that are designed to help those in need. Keep your computer out and do some research on our nation’s “entitlement” programs. It won’t take long to get reliable information that will explode many of the myths that abound in this country, not the least of which is that abomination known as the “Welfare Queen.”
What you will find if you search long enough is that the rate of Medicaid fraud is low, and most of it is committed by providers, not consumers. What you will find is that single women do not get rich by having more children and collecting on TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) or AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children). What you will find is that “food stamp” fraud (SNAP - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is low and committed mostly by the providers. What you will find is that the largest recipient of government assistance is corporations, not needy individuals or families.
With all due respect to Gov. Bryant, access to an emergency room is not equal to access to health care. The lack of common sense in that kind of thinking is that those who can’t afford preventive health care or health care in the early stages of an illness often do wind up in the emergency room, costing all of us more in ways far beyond just the medical bills.
Access to health care means a healthier Mississippi. A healthier Mississippi means a more productive work force. A more productive work force means a more self-sufficient society. A self-sufficient society means more tax dollars. More tax dollars means more resources to improve other aspects of the lives of Mississippians. We should not look a gift horse in the mouth, and the opportunity to help fellow Mississippians, especially innocent children, have access to health care is a gift horse — not a Trojan horse.
Yes, there will be problems with a Medicaid expansion, but every aspect of life has problems. In this typically generous state filled with people of great faith, let’s not be guilty of closing our hands to the poor because of politics (or any other reason). Let’s see this as the chance it is — an opportunity to accept a hand up that has the potential to make a direct positive impact on the people who need it most, the “least of these, our brothers and sisters.” If they are better, then we are all better. How can that be anything other than the Gospel in action?
“If there is among you a poor man, one of your kinsmen in any of the towns of your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your [minds and] hearts or close your hands to your poor brother; but you shall open your hands wide to him and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8, Amplified Bible)
nRandy Weeks is an ordained minister and a Licensed Professional Counselor. He lives in Oxford with his wife, Dr. Jeannie Falkner.
