Spirituality & Health Care

From the standpoint of spirituality - and specifically, the New Spirituality - which U.S. presidential candidate has the best health care plan?

Well, to answer that we must first clarify what the New Spirituality says about this kind of thing. What are the values of the New Spirituality as they relate to something as "every day" as health care?

Conversations with God makes it clear that all of us are One. It talks of the day when all of our day-to-day institutions and interactions - government, commerce, education, religion, the world of work - will be constructed about Oneness principles. Those principles invite human beings to treat each other as equals, and to see all people as extensions of the Self - which is in truth what they are.

In a society built upon New Spirituality principles, there would not be a huge and ever widening gap between the "have's" and the "have not's." There would be a leveling off of the benefits created by, and flowing to members of, every organized society. In other words, no one would be left in a lurch, no one would be left behind.

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BLOG WRITER'S NOTE: Two days a week between now and election day in the U.S. I am going to open the discussion here to politics. The other five days we will continue to focus on purely spiritual issues.

I am doing this - and feel this 5-to-1 balance is reasonable -- since in the United States we are now racing toward what many people (including not a few folks in other countries around the world) say is the most important presidential election in a century or more. And, of course, politics are a major part of life. Indeed, Conversations with God says that "politics is your spirituality, demonstrated."

In my view, a person's most sacred spiritual beliefs had better inform that person's politics, or our political system is bankrupt. And so, today's political commentary - with an opportunity for the members of the online community here to add their own observations in the Comments Section.

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Now, in terms of the practical aspects of this as it relates to the health care plans of the two candidates from President of the United States, let us explore which candidate most closely reflects the highest spiritual principles.

A wonderfully informative pair of articles comparing the health care proposals of John McCain and Barack Obama appeared Sept. 16 in The Wall Street Journal. A news/analysis story written by reporter Laura Meckler, and an opinion piece of the paper's Op Ed page by David M. Cutler, J. Bradford DeLong, and Ann Marie Marciarille, made the following points:

* Barack Obama's plan would bring more currently uninsured people into the American health care system. Far more. In round figures, 34 million newly covered citizens vs.a net increase of only about 1 million under the McCain health care proposals.

* John McCain's health care plan would cost less - but not a great deal less - than Barack Obama's: $1.3 trillion over ten years vs. the $1.6 trillion price tag for the Democrat's plan over the same period.

* Barack Obama would bring far more government regulation of big health insurance companies - requiring, for instance, insurance companies to provide coverage to everyone (including those with existing conditions), and at consistent prices, according to the news/analysis article reports. Large employers would be required to cover every worker, or pay a fine. Benefits would be more generous than they are now, across the board, as private companies would become required to match a government health care plan that Obama would create, offering an option to consumers now able to purchase only private plans. The result: private plans would increase theirbenefits to match those offered by the government plan, in order to compete.

* Under the McCain plan, "Those already sick are completely out of luck," the Op Ed piece says, since insurance companies would be "free to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions."

* John McCain would reduce both state and federal regulation of big insurance companies, the news/analysis story says. In addition, Sen. McCain "proposes a big tax hike as the solution to our health care crisis," the Journal's Op Ed piece notes. "His plan would raise taxes on workers who receive health benefits, with the idea of encouraging employers to drop coverage. A study by the University of Michigan shows that the McCain tax hike on insurance "will lead employers to drop coverage for over 20 million Americans," the opinion piece says. What would happen to these people?, the article asks, and then answers its own question: "Mr. McCain would give them a small tax credit...and then tell to navigate the individual insurance market on their own." The tax credits would be "way too small," the article on the Op Ed page says, covering less than half the cost of policies today, and "far below the 75% that most employers offering coverage contribute."

* Barack Obama's plan would require that Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and doctors be based on patient outcomes (for example, lower cholesterol readings, etc.) rather than simply paying, regardless of outcomes, for procedures performed or services offered. Currently, the Op Ed piece notes, "insurers make money by dumping sick patients, not by keeping people healthy." Basing payments to hospitals and doctors on patient outcomes is a radical notion, to say the least.

* John McCain's plan contains no such provision.

For more information about the two candidates' health care plans, reference the Sept 16 edition of The Wall Street Journal. Be sure to look up both the news/analysis article on page A21 and the Op Ed piece on page A25.

If you are concerned about health care, or have the least bit of interest in this campaign issue, you will want to read these two stories, appearing in what is regarded by almost everyone as one of the most conservative newspapers in the country.

The news/analysis story was based, by the way, on two studies done on the McCain and Obama plans, one by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center and the other appearing in Health Affairs, described by reporter Meckler as "a peer-reviewed policy journal."

It is clear to me from a reading of these two detailed and well-researched background pieces on the '08 presidential election that Barack Obama's health care plan far and away reflects more of the principles of the New Spirituality.