It is discouraging, but true. It is also to be expected. Unbelieving New Zealand is a nation populated by sheep, and we are not talking about the four legged woolly creatures. The significant majority of New Zealand citizens applaud and approve of the bribery their government lavishes upon them: money for jam such as Working for Families, interest free student loans, the Domestic Purposes Benefit, the Sickness Benefit, and the government run and controlled health system--to name but a few.
Christians literally bow their knees to the Living God, thankfully acknowledging Him as their providential provider. Unbelievers inwardly and metaphorically bow their knees to the all-provident state and worship their idol in the privacy of their own hearts and homes. Sadly, they become more like sheep every day: with mincing steps they draw near to the slaughter-house. Their god will not let them down--surely.
But their idol is an empty vanity. It must borrow $240 million dollars every week to keep the larceny in place and the good times rolling. "Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die," is the anthem of our Epicurean culture. And die they will. And probably sooner than they think, and in more pain.
When taking care of our own health is handed over to the all-providing state, two things happen. First, we have ceded up our liberty. The government now has the authority to direct what will happen to our bodies. He who controls our bodies controls virtually everything. But, worse, when that control is willingly ceded in the first place, the state controls hearts, souls, and minds as well. Secondly, as the state begins to crack under the ungodly weight of its pretensions, it finds that it runs out of other people's money, and it can no longer succeed as the Providential Provider for the people. It simply just cannot find enough money to pay for all that care of all the bodies of its subjects. There is a limit to larceny. Unbelief willingly enslaves itself to an idol which in the final analysis fails--abjectly.
The Public Health system inevitably has to engage in rationing. It becomes a ministry of death, not life. Consider this chilling account from MacDoctor:
The Dom Post today talks about the blocks that Pharmac places on people acquiring newer medications. This is but one example of how state medicine removes choice and reduces access. Reduced access to medical services is an inevitable consequence of socialised medicine, because there is an inescapable resistance to increased taxation. This resistance is far less noticeable in a private health care system, simply because that same money is then spent directly on oneself and one’s family. Access is therefore only dependent on ability to pay rather than dictated by the state machine in the name of equality (a word which usually turns out to mean equally miserable or equally badly served).
As a GP who refers both to private physicians and to the public health system, I can tell you the difference is extreme. Recently, I referred two people with identical problems, one to a private surgeon and one to the local hospital. The first has seen the surgeon, had several tests, including an MRI, and is now recovering from his surgery. The other is still waiting for her first surgical appointment and does not even have a firm date for this. This is not an unusual story. Many referrals to the hospital system simply get referred back to the GP as not having enough “points” even to “go on the list”. These are all people who genuinely need medical attention. People with hernia and haemorrhoids, suspicious lumps that need removing. People who need investigations that they can’t afford and now cannot access. People in need of joint replacements but who are not yet completely crippled. Eventually, your patient brings you a sickness benefit form and the New Zealand disease burden spills out of health expenditure into welfare. Price shifting with a vengeance.
The public health system morphs into the long-lingering-years-of-pain system: in secret, the mandarins attending the idol wish people would just die off. Once they loved to bribe them for their votes and devotion; now the plebs have grown querulous annoying and tiresome. The mandarins mutter about "hard choices"; they stretch out their hands to an ungrateful people, pleading that they have no choice in the matter and that there is simply not enough money to go around.
When the public-health fiasco was being debated in the United States, Sarah Palin presciently warned of the inevitable emergence of "death panels", where state bureaucrats would ration care, deciding who would get treated, and what conditions and diseases would be ignored. She understated the reality, however. Prior to death, in many cases, are the long lingering years of perpetual pain and suffering. This is what public health systems end up producing. It is the most vicious and degrading unintended consequence of all.
Many of the lingering sufferers are not without blame, of course. They played the game. They allowed themselves to be bribed. They voted for the larceny. They raised their children to trust, idolize, and worship the state. "You don't need to worry about me, sonny. The gummint will take care of me as I get old. Put out your hand, like me, and claim your entitlements." Now, in their older years, it's too late. Their idol is broke--both figuratively and fiscally. Their cupboards are bare. There is no way out, no way back.
Idols are always vicious, destructive, and ultimately deadly. Moloch was one of the most evil and degraded conceptions in the age of old-covenant Israel. Moloch "required" that devotees sacrifice their own children in the fire. And they did, in special ovens outside the city walls. The modern idol of choice is the despotic adminsitrative state that organizes and provides for all of life. Except, it fails to deliver--inevitably--and so consumes its older, most vulnerable citizens in the burning fires of constant pain. Truly a god to be worshipped and venerated.
The gracious call of God is more urgent and needs be heard than ever:
"Say to them, 'As I live!' declares the Lord GOD, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?' Ezekiel 33: 11
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