Healthcare is a Privilege

My poor little girl has been sick lately, and last night and this morning, she was burning up and lethargic. I called the doctor at 8:15 am, was given an appointment time of 9:45 and was on my way to the pharmacy by 10:15. My sick baby was given excellent, loving care and a prescription to heal her pneumonia.

I have spent some time this afternoon contrasting our healthcare in America with what is available in the country where my son is. In his homeland, you don't go the doctor unless you are literally dying because the care is so poor. Similarly, when I was living in Romania, you didn't get decent care unless you could pay off the nurses and buy your necessary medical supplies with your own money. Both of these places put the poor at an extreme disadvantage...to the point that they literally receive little to no care. In fact, 26,000 children will die of preventable diseases today. PREVENTABLE. Why aren't they prevented? Because they don't have the care that we do. If my family where from that undisclosed country that my son is from, my daughter could very likely die from a bad case of untreated pneumonia, yet that thought hadn't even crossed my mind in America.

I know that our healthcare system is flawed, but what a God-given blessing we have! We have access to care that most of the world can't comprehend. We assume that we deserve this wonderful care; however, the reality is that we had no control over the country that we would be born into or the economic system that we would inherit. While my son's birth family likely suffered greatly from lack of basic medical care (his birth mother may have even died from childbirth), he no longer will once he steps on US soil.

The contrast is startling. So today, I am thankful for the gracious privilege I have of living in this material blessing-filled land. But I am also mindful of the millions who do not have the basic care that I do. There is a great need for godly doctors and nurses to go and serve the poorest of the poor. I am hopeful that maybe even my own children will be among the ranks of those who cash in their privileges as Americans and go to serve Jesus abroad with their various gifts.