Milton Freidman famously opined that “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions”. Modern day claims of “charity and social justice” have no bases in Biblical Justice or Natural Law Theory. A legislator, a government bureaucrat, a hospital that is the recipient of government transfer payments are not participating in any form of “Christian Charity”. Charity is a contract between the giver and the receiver to which God is a party. “What you do to the least of my brethren you do unto me”. Charity defines a Covenant relationship.
Medicaid is not a form of charity. It subsidizes financial transactions and supports medical providers in such a way that facilitates economic frictions and the misallocation of scarce resources—the resources that are the fruits of taxpayers’ labor. The promise of decreased cost shifting and decreasing cost of coverage for people paying for their own health care has not been realized by the expansion of Medicaid. With one out of six people in Idaho currently on Medicaid, and one out of three of those not eligible for coverage the cost of “free coverage” for young healthy adults has been transferred back to taxpayers and those that buy their own coverage. 150,000-200,000 of our fellow citizens are “gaming the system”. Providers are also gaming the system with upcoding and schemes of “Medicaid Capture” of patients many of whom are college students with parents of means, the people who Medicaid was originally designed to protect, those on the margins with real medical conditions, who because of the inflated enrollments cannot see a provider for many weeks are penalized. Access—not. Quality—not. Cost—increasing despite billions of dollars of subsidies to providers who have administrators making millions of dollars per year.
C. S. Lewis made a similar statement about the preening do-gooders in government, the private, and the non-profit sector with claims of “CHARITY.”
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
I am tired of being lectured to by politicians’ “experts”, and a sycophantic media that tell me they know what is best for me. Global warming, masks, vaccines, mandates, electric cars, a baby is a “fetus” and not a living person”, “grooming” and “woke theory” for my children—my children belong to me not the “state”. Scientific American today published an article stating that “human sex is not binary”. They are scientists and you better listen to them. “Non-binary sex” may be a lot of things, but it is not part of a Covenant relationship to which God is a party.”
No profession has embraced a condescending dismissive disrespect for individual free-will and individual sovereignty than the medical establishment. Professional organizations, academia and universities that leverage the respect that past generations earned for unselfish service to patients, has embraced a communal public health model of care that places the doctor, nurse—patient relationship in a secondary position. Most practicing doctors and nurses still adhere to the tenants of their professional codes and truly don’t agree with the new pedagogy being promulgated from “on high”. True charity like grassroot politics begins from the bottom—from individuals and families lending a helping hand to other individuals and families. It never “trickles down” from on high, from a government agency or a piece of legislation. A charitable act is a private, covenant. There is no quid pro quo. There is no expectation of reciprocation for a vote or the receiving of a transfer payment. There is a big difference between an act of charity, a campaign contribution that results in a Medicaid reimbursement or a subsidy to a contractor. We should never forget the difference.
