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September 13, 2009 - Do You Want to Deny Jesus Healthcare?

by Father Edward L. Beck, C.P.

Like many of you this week I watched President Obama’s speech on Health Care. And like many of you I was horrified when Republican Representative Joe Wilson heckled The President of the United States and called him a liar. Okay, he called out "YOU LIE!", which in my estimation is the same thing. Now aside from the shameful embarrassment of an elected official acting in such a manner toward the President, what interested me was the comment of the President that caused the unruly outburst. It was when President Obama said that his new Health Care Plan would not cover Illegal Immigrants. Well, you know what? I wish that the President had been lying. Because I think that any health plan that offers universal coverage should in fact cover undocumented workers as well. Especially when they are willing to pay for it just like they have to pay for everything else. I think we have a moral obligation to provide health care access for every person struggling to live in America. Otherwise we are saying that if an illegal immigrant shows up at an emergency room with a sick or injured child that we’re not going to treat that child. But we treat them now. Why wouldn’t we continue to? We have 22 million foreign-born non-citizens living in the United States. Do we really think it’s in the common good to have that many people getting sick with no available treatment? Do you want someone will tuberculosis roaming around your neighborhood? And then people say, "Well I don’t want to have to pay for it." But you’re already paying for it. And you’ll be paying more for it if we pretend that 22 million people simply don’t exist. And this is to say nothing of the religious, moral and ethical argument for providing universal health care. The Judeo-Christian tradition demands it. From the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures to the Jesus of the Christian Gospels, God’s mandate is clear. We’re responsible for the poor and vulnerable. Jesus says, “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.” We can’t do that if we’re sick with no available treatment. In the Gospels Jesus is the Divine Physician who brings physical as well as spiritual and emotional healing to people. They are not separate. And this is the Jesus who says that the one thing we will be judged on is how we cared for the vulnerable in our midst. “I was sick and you cared for me. Whatever you did for the least of my brothers or sisters, you did to me.” So, do you really want to be denying Jesus healthcare? President Obama may want to start lying after all.

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