Insurance Crazy

Have you heard the latest numbers?  Americans with no healthcare coverage grew in number by 2.2 million according to the census bureau!  Oh NO!!  What are we going to do to address this terrible plight facing millions in the richest nation on earth?  Is it time, are we ready for socialized medicine and mandated health insurance?  Ready or not, that’s the way Massachusetts is going and perhaps the rest of the nation.

But nowhere have I seen or heard where the question was asked “Why?  Why do you not have health insurance?”  I am among the ranks of those without health insurance; I do participate in a medical needs sharing program, but that doesn’t count at least for those who are counting.  I made the decision to opt out of company-paid health insurance (they paid mine, I had to pay the family portion) for two reasons, one very small but still a consideration and the other much larger.

First, in twenty years of paying Blue Cross premiums to cover three pregnancies and two major surgeries, the cost of the premiums exceeded the payback in benefits.  I would have been better off financially to put the amount of the premium in a simple passbook savings account and paid the bills myself.  There’s always a discount for paying cash and the savings would have earned interest, a double payback.

Second, and much more important, the good health of me and my family coupled with the premiums I paid helped to subsidize lifestyle choices made by others in the insurance pool that I would not make.  This isn’t speculation, it is actual experience – my premiums helped to cover medical expenses resulting from drunk driving, alcoholism, drug abuse, and prolonged use of tobacco.  Now maybe I’ll get in an accident and need medical treatment but it sure won’t be ’cause I’m driving drunk.  I may someday get cancer but it won’t be ’cause I smoked three packs a day for fifty years.

I decided I wasn’t going to spend my money in that way to help people cope with the consequences of bad choices.  There are other ways through the local church to do that much more effectively.  I also wasn’t going to spend my money to subsidize the medical costs of abortion.  Perhaps I’m strange and no one else on the planet thinks the way I do but now you know why I opted out of a top-of-the-line Blue Cross plan and into Samaritan Ministries.  I’m not even convinced that Samaritan’s is the best way to go but that’s where we are right now.

Part of my ambivalence stems from the question of how we should interact with the doctrine of God’s Providence.  I believe it’s irresponsible to have no insurance on anything and plow through life carelessly while depending on God to cover your act and keep you out of trouble.  But I’m not so sure it is irresponsible to have no insurance on anything and go through life making wise choices, being a wise steward of what God entrusts you, being generous in time and treasure support of the local church and God’s work, and trusting Him to care for you.   Isn’t that one of the reasons God put the local church on the earth, to be the context in which Christians bear one another’s burdens?

If we are faithful to our Lord, to the local church, and to one another in every aspect of our life, can we not expect Him to care for us?  And if that is true, does relying on insurance really say, “We can count on God for the little stuff but we need protection for the big stuff?”  Or is insurance of some sort and at some level of “protection” one of the ways God uses to provide for us?

• Random thoughts