I fear that God may judge me.... For having a Medical Aid scheme
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 6:16AM 
Megan and I have been truly thankful for our medical aid scheme. We are members of one of the larger private medical health administration schemes in Southern Africa. They have offered us good care.
Sure, our benefits could be better... Sometimes we feel the pinch when we have to take one of our kids to a doctor, or if Liam has to see a specialist more than once in a month and we have to find R500 each time to pay up front.
However, we have good hospital care. This last stint that Liam spent in hospital (just under a week) will only cost us about R9 000 - which is the maximum we should ever have to pay for covered care. Sure, when our little guy was in ICU for a few months we ran out of cover and ended up taking a second bond on our home to pay that off. However, for all intents and purposes we probably only paid for about few weeks of ICU care, whereas the medical aid scheme paid for months!
We have nothing to complain about.
Yesterday the nurse who looks after Liam fell ill. She was truly not well! So, Megie and I took her to our local doctor (knowing that there was no way that she would get to see a doctor within a day, let alone on the same night, at a government clinic). She was bent over in pain. Our doctors gave her compassionate and expert care - unlike many other doctors in the country they are not overworked, under inordinate pressure, under equipped, or under staffed.
They are able to offer the care they can because they serve people like us, people who have money to pay.
Our nurse, however, is not one of those people. She has to rely on the overburdened public health system. In a nation where the death rate has exceeded the birth rate (because of HIV / AIDS) that is a SCARY thought! In truth, unless you are dying it is unlikely that you will get swift care... That is not an indictment on the women and men who do their best to offer the best possibel care for the most possible people, under less than ideal circumstances....
NO, it is an indictment upon me...
I am one of those persons who 'props' up the system of abuse that ensures that people who have money (not people who are most in need of treatment and care) receive the best, fasted, and friendliest care...
Something is wrong with this picture! Sadly, I don't have the courage to change it. I cannot bear the thought of giving up my medical aid - I fear for the life of my children. But, by the same token I cannot bear that my medical aid contributes to the widening gap of care that exists.
Lord, help me!
Surely there must be a better system where those who have give so that those who don't can also have?
I know that Megan and I can make a difference in the life of this one woman, but I long to change a nation. I long for us to change the world so that it reflects the Kingdom of God! I long for a world where everyone can have the best, fastest, friendliest, and necessary care - not because they have money, but simply because they are human. I need to pray, and think, and work - but in the meantime I need to repent. I have unwittingly contributed towards the suffering of others.
A system that turns the suffering of others into a commodity MUST be wrong, and if it is wrong, then I have a responsibility to change it.
Today I pray for all those people who did not sleep last night because they, or someone they love, is sick... They're sick and they know they cannot access the treatment they need... Today I pray for all doctors, nurses, care givers, and healers, who wish they could do more for those who 'live their lives in the dark', 'giving all that they can, wishing they could give more'...
Technorati tags: Medical Aid, God's judgement, The Kingdom of God, prayer for healing, change the world
Reader Comments (1)
There is a tendency for medical aids to follow the building societies, and mutual life assurance associations to go commercial. Old Mutuakl, for example, is totally fraudulent: it is neither old nor mutual. It should be called the New Commercial.
But have the churces said anything? Have they warned about thisd kind of moral degeneration? If they have, they've said it very quietly.