Doctors

I was thinking about doctors a few days ago. The role that they play in todays society is a big one. The hands of a hundred doctors have saved millions of lives. And yet, doesn't it seem like they make too much? (besides sports stars, plastic surgeons, the government and dentists?)


The reason for this questioning is the fact that at the moment I do not have the wonderful package we like to call Health Insurance. I need it yes. To I believe in it? No! I understand that I have no control over my life and the circumstances that may or may not happen to cause me to have to see a doctor for a "split tongue or severed elbow joint," but I'm safe arent I? Wrong, no one is safe. I may think I am safe. I may think that my driving is amazing and wonderful and perhaps pleasing to God, and so His Mighty hand of justice wont beat me down and crush me to bits, (even though he could at any moment do just that!)

I just find it hard to pay so much cash for something that could or wont happen in my lifetime. I COULD end up spending a fortune on a really big security blanket like Health Insurance, I could spend my time asking for God's protection and healing, I could look at the rest of the worlds suffering and just live with it.

I am reminded of Clive Owens line in the film Beyond Borders, where he is having a conversation with Angelina Jolie about illness and sickness in some foreign country. He asks he flat out, "Have you ever just had the cold? Not popping any pills, not going to a doctor, just have the cold? These people do it all the time."

Seriously that blew me away. Here is a man in another country trying to fight for the lives of the dying and oppressed. Here is a man who seems to be bitter at the rest of the world for what is happening to the REST of the world. Here is a man who has given everything he has for the lives of others, not his own selfish ambition or want. Here is a man I can admire.

I understand that there are organizations known as the Red Cross and others out there fighting for the rightings of the injustices and pains in the rest of the world, but I am still not comfortable and probably never will be giving my money to a doctor in a white coat and that freezing stethascope that they must pull straight from the cooler just before entering the room, diagnosing you with some easily currable disease, writing something in sandscrit on a small piece of paper, charging you TEN bucks (if you have Health Insurance) and sending you merrily off to the local Rite Aid to get your quick fix.


One hundred years ago, did they have all this? I know we have progressed in this area throughout the years, and I am grateful for that, but what was it like then? What was it like a thousand years ago? Havent there always been doctors or healers or even Christ for that matter? (How many people were healed just by touching Him or looking at Him? Do you ever wonder about that? I do)

My question is this, did they (they, the people) call up the doctor or fetch the doctor. Then the doctor would grap his black bag, preferably leather, and pull the stethascope out of the ice chest and run on over? And he would diagnose little Timmy with the flu and then turn to the parents and what? No signature, no paper, no insurance, no bill. I bet they worked something out. I mean that is how he made his living, but I am sure every case had its price. Every different family had its price as well. Could you imagine living that way? By how much people thought your work was worth? I mean let's say I walk into a record shop, I am looking to buy one vinyl album. Billy Joel-Glass Houses or Jackson Browne's-Running on Empty. I have a quick listen to both on the turn-table and find that I like Jackson way more than I like Billy. And yet the price for both is 15 bucks new. (used is a different story though.) One is obviously better than the other, but the same price? Come on!

I may be a little of my whack right now. I might not even be making sense, but everything has it's worth. Doctors have their worth, but I wonder if we pay them too highly for what they do. What if they were paid higher to go into the world? What if they already are and I don't know it. What if they actually made a difference? What if we didn't have to have something to sign before they could proceed with surgery? I mean honestly? Money over a mans life?

One thing in the old movies worries me. We never actually see any form of payment when the doctor comes to call. Do they even get paid? Is it in dollars or in cows and eggs and chickens?

Health Insurance, is it worth it? To some yes. To me? Only when I need it!