Continuing our discussion of the health care system with my former professor and colleague, Dr. David Jones, Emeritus Professor of Theology and Ethics, Covenant Theological Seminary …

PROBE: From a biblical perspective, does the civil government have a responsibility to provide health care for its citizenry or even legislate that businesses or individuals have health care plans?

Response. No. Civil society flourishes when the state recognizes its plural structure and cultivates the common good allowing the other spheres to develop their distinctive contributions to the cultural mandate. In Reformed circles this is known as “sphere sovereignty.”

PROBE: Most of the debate is fed by information coming through media and political sources which often conflicts. For example, different sides of the aisle interpret the language of the proposed bills in contradictory ways, the numbers of uninsured vary greatly, and costs of various options are calculated in widely divergent ways. What have you found to be the most accurate sources of information on the topic?

Response: Wall Street Journal; New England Journal of Medicine
PROBE: From those sources do you have a feel for what percentage of the population actually has no access to necessary medical care?

Response: Not from these sources that I can remember, so I put this question to a Christian MD friend of mine who holds a prominent position in one of St. Louis’s leading hospitals, and he tells me that all patients in the US have access to necessary healthcare, and that laws in place and Hippocratic obligations require that all patients presenting to an emergency room, for example, must be seen and treated regardless of ability to pay. Anecdotally, he reports that most of the folks they see in their emergency room do not pay all billed services or have no insurance, and furthermore that their evaluations in the emergency room are many times more extensive than might otherwise be done in the realization that uninsured folks might leave and not return because of social issues. That care extends to Intensive Care Unit stays, surgery, etc.