The eCrozier

When you come to the fork in the road, take it. – Yogi Berra

This well-known “Yogi-ism” at first blush might seem to be just another of his famous malapropisms, like “it’s déjà vu all over again.” But like with a lot of things, if we take the time to learn and maybe to suspend judgment, we might arrive at a different conclusion. You see, Mr. Berra lived in a large house on a hill in suburban New Jersey.  The house’s driveway wound up the hill and at the top, it forked. But the fork was actually a circle and both directions led to the same end – the house’s front door. So, when Mr. Berra told guests, “when you come to the fork in the road, take it” he was accurately telling them how to get to his front door. What might have seemed at first misleading is actually a clear direction.

One of the most vexing moral issues in America today is access to quality, affordable health care. Morally speaking, such health care is a human right. Receiving quality health care shouldn’t be contingent on someone’s bank balance. Now we can debate the best way to accomplish this, but quality health care is a human right, at least for those of us who follow Jesus. Right now, over 36 million of our fellow citizens either don’t have any health care insurance or they live in a part of the country where access to quality care is poor. This problem in Georgia is rapidly growing as we see rural, county hospitals closing. When people do get to a doctor and need medicine, millions don’t have the funds to pay for these medications. And yet, even for those who can afford to pay or who have insurance, our health care costs are still far higher than other developed countries. Princeton University economists Anne Case & Angus Deaton determined we pay $8,000/person/year more than Switzerland, the next most expensive, but the Swiss have better health outcomes and longer life expectancy. As Ms. Case said: “We can brag we have the most expensive health care. We can also now brag that it delivers the worst health of any rich country.”

Added to this access and affordability problem, many people are now swimming in medical debt. Medical debt destroys people’s financial stability, many of whom are the most vulnerable: the sick, the elderly, the poor, and disabled veterans. It also effects the middle class, driving many families into poverty. Medical debt isn’t the result of bad decisions. People have to incur it in order to pay for their needed health care.

Smarter people than I must figure out how to solve this, but we’ve come to the fork in the road of access to quality, affordable health care. We just need to take it by learning what it means to be a civilized, compassionate society. Until we solve the accessibility and affordability problem, we can do something now to help relieve people of their debt burden. A non-profit group called RIP Medical Debt ripmedicaldebt.org helps donors, like churches, wipe away the burdensome debt for many people by buying up that debt for pennies on the dollar. They’ve done so to the tune of over $1 Billion so far. I invite the parishes of the Diocese to do this as part of their Lenten discipline this year. After all, God’s forgiveness of our debt is at the heart of Lent.

+Scott