Jesuscare for all?

Interesting fact about Jesus: He didn’t heal everybody. Oh, he healed everyone who came to him for healing, but he didn’t send his disciples out to round up everyone who was sick or handicapped so that he could make them well and whole. Even though as the Son of God he had the power to heal every single sick person, he left the earth with more than a single person still sick.

I make this observation because as I ponder the platform a President Jesus would prefer, it seems to bear on how he would approach the very important issue of healthcare. I’m sure many on the Left believe he would champion universal healthcare but I don’t think that’s at all clear.

Here are a few things to consider:

We don’t have an inherent right to healthcare.
Healthcare, as far as I can tell, is not one of the “unalienable rights” our nation’s founders declared all men are endowed with by God. The three mentioned in that famous independence declaration (so embarrassingly botched by Joe Biden) which are “among these” rights – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – are what are called negative rights.

A negative right is a right not to be subjected to an action of another person or group; negative rights permit or oblige inaction.

A right to healthcare would instead be a positive right.

A positive right is a right to be subjected to an action or another person or group; positive rights permit or oblige action.

A right to healthcare obliges an action from another…in this case, from medical personnel. But is that right of the same kind as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? It seems to me an inherent right given by God would have to be of the negative kind because they are rights of the individual and so would have to apply even if only one individual existed.

A universal healthcare system also obliges action from every taxpayer to fund it, seriously imposing on our right to our own property. What’s more, it would likely compromise the quality of our healthcare and our right to use our property (money) to obtain the level of care we want and can afford.

So although a nation can institute a right to healthcare for its citizens, it’s incorrect to insist that it’s our right even if a nation doesn’t.

Neither do we have a right to good health.
Nothing produces doubt in God’s existence or his goodness more than the presence of pain and suffering in the world. Believers themselves are often troubled by the harsh reality that God allows even those who are devoted to him to languish in illness and live with injuries knowing that he could heal them all with a word.

But he doesn’t. And though his reasons are varied and unrevealed, one thing is sure: Universal health is not the greatest good. Though not necessarily good in themselves, God allows sickness, pain, and injuries because they may be necessary to achieve good ends – like prompting people to turn to him for help and in the process coming to believe in him and be saved.

We were not made for this world.
I’m sure if I or a loved one needed medical care I would do whatever I could to get it. But because I believe in the reality of the soul and an afterlife, and that an eternal blissful existence in God’s presence free of pain and sorrow awaits those who trust in him, you won’t have to pry my fingers off this life when efforts to preserve it would be too costly.

If everyone had that sure hope of heavenly happiness forever, which is the true life that we were made for, healthcare would be far, far less expensive as many would forego extreme measures to extend life in a sinful, sick world and choose instead to let go of their earthly life to be with Jesus. (John 14:3)

So I don’t know if President Jesus would support Medicare For All. But what I do know is that he’d be much more concerned about our spiritual health than our physical health. In fact, Soulcare For All would likely be his signature policy.