Making Insurance Better

The human body, as the temple of the Holy Spirit, is an important part of who and what we are. We are a complex folding together of a non-material part – the spirit – and a material part – the body. I Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” Ecclesiastes 12:3 speaks of “the keepers of the house” meaning our hands, as they tend to our bodies, which is the “house.” There are many other like passages which make it clear to all Bible-believers that our bodies are important not only to us, but to God, and that we are charged with taking care of our bodies.

Self-care is what we largely do not have today. Of all payments made for medical care today in the U.S., only about a third come out of our own pocket directly. The remainder comes from the pockets of others, almost exclusively from the pockets of others who neither know us nor who give willingly – from insurance plans and taxes. Now, the third that we do pay is so formidable that we imagine that we cannot possibly pay more, and that basic medical insurance is somehow the only answer. Quite wrong. Basic medical insurance is incapable of being a workable proposition. Insurance is okay, but only for insurable risks.

Basic medical costs are not an insurable risk, and legislation cannot change that fact. One thing, then, that we would need, is for all insurance to be:

(1) bought by the recipient for himself/herself and dependents,

(2) paid only to the purchaser, not to hospitals or doctors. Individuals would then become shoppers, making risk to benefit decisions. If a person, for example, could find $1000 deductible insurance, he/she would find that the premiums are lower than for $250 deductible. If the person is willing and able to take the extra $750 risk, a savings can be achieved. If the person is willing to save the difference in premium, then, if the person "wins" on the risk (most will), the difference can be added to the money saved to handle the risk. It is a basic form of self-insurance, or money saved for a rainy day. (See Prov. 6:6 and 30:25 regarding the way the lowly ant makes provisions for times of want.) A few years of such return of savings on premium to a self-insurance pool and most families which are now insured through their employer might be able to achieve $5000 to $10,000 deductible insurance, which is very cheap indeed. After that, the money saved might be spent on true biblical charity or other goals of the church.


Excerpt from talk given at Westminster Presbyterian Church