Update [2004-12-9 11:52:37 by TheGryphon]: I added a snappy new title so people will erad this...maybe?
This has been rattling around in my brain for several months. Take a looke below the fold and tell me if I'm whistling in h dark or we can hammer in a wedge here...
The concept of insurance is, at base, a charitable institution. Insurance is marketed as a vehicle designed to help the tragedy-stricken. This goal is, unfortunately, at odds with the observed effect of "insurance" as sold by corporations. Insurance companies paradoxically strive to NOT pay out on claims. The obvious reason for this is the PROFIT MOTIVE. It is profitable for insurance companies to accept premium payments, ad unprofitable to pay out on claims. The result in an industry dominated by publicly traded companies is predictable: Insurance companies will not insure those most in need of their services, and do their utmost to not pay out on claims in almost every situation. Thus, we see that insurance companies that function on the profit motive are, at best, false advertising; at worst, fraud.
Medicine is, to my thinking, similar. The Hippocratic Oath injoins us to "...apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism." This injunction is clearly at odds with our experience of an institution where money is taken "up front", and the care you receive is clearly predicated upon how much you can pay, not on what care you require.
What do these examples illustrate? I t seems to me that they indicate that our society has made a tragic error. We enshrine capitalism and the profit motive as the only right and honorable institution. In fact, this economic system is rife with unfairness and anti-christian thinking. This is the economic philosophy of those who claim to believe in the "Least among us" parable. Why is it that evangelical Christians are so wedded to a social institution so at odds with their strongly held religious beliefs? Does this discussion buy us a wedge if we are brave enough to have it?
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