Exhortation Twenty-Two                                Insurance or Assurance?     Why is it that someone like myself cannot afford good medical care? Why do the sick and injured that pour into today’s Emergency Rooms have to wait an average of two to three hours before they get any attention? Have you ever gone into an Emergency Room to get critical care, only to be asked to sit and wait while much of the staff stand around chatting with one another? When they do get around to helping you, they ask you to fill out various forms and inquire whether you have an accepted insurance provider. If your provider is not listed with them, you are likely to be told to go elsewhere. If you are not covered by insurance, they might tell you that you qualify for temporary medical aid but that just seems to justify a longer waiting period. Surely, the ever-increasing number of poor people become victims of yet another brand of elitism.     About a year ago, my son incurred a minor head injury at school. The “head bump” was a result of aggressive schoolyard play. He experienced dizziness and nausea. The school nurse called me and requested I pick him up.     When I arrived, the school nurse strongly encouraged me to take my son to the nearby Hospital Emergency Room. I politely objected because we had no affordable insurance and it was likely my son would recover after some rest. I said, “If I go anywhere, I will take him to the clinic where he will receive more immediate attention. It might only cost me $40-$60.00.”     The nurse allowed me to depart with my son. As we were stepping through the schools front doors, my son vomited all over the sidewalk entrance. The front office administrators and school nurse saw this and the nurse ran out to grab my son and bring him back into the office. She handed him a vomit sack and asked me to have a seat. She said, “I’ll be right back,” and disappeared around the corner to the Principles office. Though I could not clearly hear all the words being exchanged, I knew she was seeking authority to over-ride my decision to avoid the Hospital.     After several minutes, she came back into the infirmary to ask me a couple more questions regarding my reluctance for emergency services. She diagnosed my son as having a concussion and insisted that I take him directly to the Hospital Emergency Room. I responded, “He’ll get much quicker attention at the clinic where a Doctor friend of mine worked than he would in a hospital emergency room. We’ll wait for two or three hours just to be seen a few minutes and later receive a bill for services in the neighborhood of $2000.00! I cannot justify nor can I afford that!”     Just then, an administrator walked in and said, “Mr. Stivers, please do not worry about the costs. The school district has insurance for cases like this. Any medical services provided for your son over the next 24 hours will be covered relating to this injury.” The school nurse then said, “I will accompany you and your son to the emergency room.” I accepted the offer.     We were in emergency services for a total of three hours. My son received a total of twenty minutes care. A Cat-Scan procedure was performed and the results were negative. The attending physician declared, “Your son is going to be ok.”     Over the next five weeks, I received three invoices totaling over $1800.00. After confirming with the hospital there were no more invoices forthcoming, I submitted them to the school district offices. A few more weeks pass and an administrator from an insurance adjuster calls me to verify claim and information. She wanted to know all the nit-picky details and who authorized this emergency coverage, etc. She asked me how I was able to raise three children myself all these years without medical insurance? I simply replied, “Faith, GOD assures me of certain things if I walk a narrow path. With His assurances, I have found insurance to be an unnecessary burden. Besides, how could I possibly justify excessive insurance payments when I literally struggle to keep food on the table? I refuse to support the excessive graft and greed of the insurance industry! They don’t have my best interests in mind. They are part of that system which I loathe. So, I have nothing else to hold onto except my faith.”       Now, I am very thankful for the provision that was afforded my family by our school district. It was not the first time they stepped forward to assist my families needs during a time of crisis. After my wife-committed suicide, the district saw fit to engage counseling services for my three very young children. They were acting in my children’s best interests and you cannot help but be grateful for such kind generosity. I remember accepting their offer at the time because I wanted to be sure any long-term effects of such a tragedy could be averted.     When I inquired why the costs of this short deliverance of care was so high, the answer appalled me. The current costs for medical care are aligned with current insurance cost standards. It is not the medical community, which establishes these costs. The insurance industry has seated itself as an authority to determine those costs. Today, that has resulted in Doctors and care providers earning at best a tenth of those who are devoted to play (professional sports). Does that make any sense to you?       In today’s world, mans litigious and greed oriented nature has precipitated and nourished abuse of insurance claims. That is largely the reason for excessive claim/suit over-runs, which lead to excessive and unreasonable costs to the average consumer. Of course the attorney’s are the real winners. They take liberally for their services and the courts today don’t acknowledge you as credible unless you have an attorney. What happened to self-representation?     Mans nature is prone to excessiveness, extreme indulgence, greed and vanity. If we more closely applied moral fundamentals to our rules of society, we would see a lot less hatred and indifference than we do today. Doesn’t anybody pay attention to history’s lessons and remember the outcome of such crimes against humanity? Today, you have excessive work related claims, auto and injury claims, mal-practice claims, school/work abuse claims, harassment and on and on and on without end. Most are precipitated by greed rather than need. These are a few rotting seeds in a large pail of rotting fruit.                                                                                                                                           Pharmacia     Today’s Drug Industry is really something to marvel at. People are spending billions and billions of dollars on quick fix remedies. Can’t perform for your mate? Get Viagra! Can’t stay awake to fly your Jet fighter? Here, take these “Go pills.” Can’t pay attention in school? Take Ritalin. Are you always depressed? Try this Prozac. You’ll be feeling fine in three weeks. Are you always anxious? Are you feeling sluggish? Are you too fat or too thin? Want a tan? Take these browning pills. Does your poor diet give you acid reflux disease? “Take the New purple pill from Nexium.” These lists too, go on and on without end. Being a mixer of potions and cure-all remedies is a lucrative occupation these days. Through mass media marketing, the public has been seduced into replacing their faith for an easier solution. For the most part, many of these unproven remedies lead to other more serious side effects often resulting in permanent impairment or even death! Unfortunately, the harmful side effects don’t often show until it’s too late.  Years ago, America banned cigarette ads on Television and later, hard Alcohol ads. But we’re still pushing a wide variety of druggisim.   What we have here is legalized druggery to promote wealth and vanity in a society where marijuana use is largely is condemned. Man creates his own potions to enhance and glorify his vain nature while the peace-loving, less indulgent are condemned for occasional use of a God created plant! Besides the Monks, the most peaceful people I know on this planet are pot smokers! History has shown that man will always continue to change his laws to suit his own selfish desires. The innocent are often condemned while the elite promote partiality and favoritism in Grande fashion. American Society largely condemns cigarette smoking and smokers while the government continues to subsidize Tobacco farms. I have never heard of Tobacco Salad, have you? HYPOCRITES!     We’ve all become hypocrites! Through their example, our Government and Religious role models, we have become quite accustomed to life as a lower life form! We truly are like swine that is led around by a ringed nose. Most don’t know it but they are headed right for the slaughterhouse. We fail to measure up to the more perfect standard of GOD’s Appointment. That is, Christ. We are selfish more than we are selfless. We are sooo vain! Who are we to judge in such a way when we don’t even notice the beam that is in our own eye? The very source of our hypocrisy aside from human imperfection is the increasing legislation of so-called morality and the excessive rule making within the Churches of Man. Our own litigious nature has given birth to many hypocrites. Perhaps one day, I will write a book about the many churches of man and title it, “The Making of a Hypocrite.”     We call this ‘progress’ and ‘civilization’ or ‘civilized society.’ America likes to think of herself as a queen of morality and a righteous example to the world. It looks more and more like she has become a harlot to me. She has become a land of abominations and many transgressions. Her moral indifference will be her undoing at the last hour. America needs to go to her knees and truly repent but she resists.     America will go to her knees but will her neck be broken in the process? We are promised that every nation will bow to its knees and confess our Lord of lords and King of kings. The question I have for the Nations and you the reader is, “Who will submit to Him of their own free will?” The Kingdom of YHWH desires you whose choices are sure.     The Father has outstretched arms waiting to receive you, waiting to deliver you from the jaws of certain death and punishment without end. He desires you to be free from all this excessive self-nature, sin and law. The law was intended for the transgressors. It is designed to tame them and discipline their various weaknesses and wickedness. The law was never intended to strip the moral upright from their prudent use of freedom. But, what we have today is a society largely made up of immoral, impure, unbelieving miscreants whose desire is to stand on the sidelines in the game of life to cast stones, drink beer and smoke pot. Because God’s children can’t seem to behave properly, we have been rewarded with pain, punishment and heavy burden. If you look in the mirror and were truly honest about it, you’ll have to confess that we did it to ourselves. By the choices we’ve made, we have determined our own destiny and the Father fore knew it. Apart from Him, we truly are incapable and perhaps at best, a burden.     Men, always seeking power and authority over men and the women want their place too. Whether in the context of mans Government or mans Religion, men are always seeking to exercise power and authority, oppression and dominion over one another. In the context of good behavior and sound moral judgment, who ever said one mans right overshadows another mans right? Why does man continue to try and legislate morality long after the perfect was already established? Was Jesus sacrifice on the stake not adequate for you? Do you desire to crucify Him all over again?     Again, I ask you America, Where are the brave hearted? Where are the Jesus-like roll models in Government? Where is Jesus figured in on the many Sunday Services? Are you being taught that because Jesus died for our many transgressions, you don’t have to? Where is your Moral Fortitude? Where is your Honor? What of Respect? Is love a feeling to you or an Unwavering Commitment? How could you possibly justify the extreme sensuality shoved in our faces by the homosexual community, pass laws to protect them and condemn a man for asking a female co-worker out on a date, declaring sexual harassment? You HYPOCRITES!   And the voice of our Lord spoke to me and said,   “Behold, all these souls are mine; the souls of fathers as well as the souls of sons. Every soul who transgresses My covenant will surely die. If a man is righteous and he practices what is right and just, if he does not eat at these false shrines and lift up his eyes to abominable idols, if he respects his neighbors wife and does not lust after her, if he avoids oppression and works hard to restore his debts, if he does not steal but feeds the hungry and clothes those who are lacking, if he lends money to help rather than charging interest for personal gain, if he avoids all forms of sexual transgression, if he abstains from societies inequities and executes true justice to all men, if he walks and lives according to My statutes and all My ordinances, he is justified and shall surely live!”