Upon completing college back in the early 1970s, I worked for a large department store in NY in the accounting office. Working full time, naturally, I was afforded a company group insurance policy which included health benefits, along with dental, and life insurance. At that time there were no HMOs, nor were there any physicians that did not accept any legitimate health insurance plan. During my childhood, my parents always maintained insurance coverage on both me and my sister through Blue Cross/Blue Shield of NY. The insurance offered by my employer was also through Blue Cross/Blue Shield of NY. It was touted to be the best health insurance plan around at that time, and cost me personally nothing to enroll. The employer paid the entire premium in my behalf, and although it did have a yearly deductible, and then paid 80% up to a specified amount before paying 100%, being relatively healthy it posed no real economic hardship on me, and I was easily able to cover my deductible, and small out of pocket costs for any tests or prescriptions I may have needed.

It wasn’t until I relocated to southern California in the mid 1970s, that for the first time, I realized just how much our country needed to revamp its health care system. Perhaps revamp is a poor term for what I observed initially, but eventually it would become a very well suited term for what would be needed. Of course today what is needed is a complete overhaul of our health care system, and a program that will allow everyone affordable and good quality health care. However, intiially, the programs in place were very good, and very affordable to those who worked full time. There obviously weren’t as many small businesses out there, and even the ones that were, could at least afford some type of health care coverage for their families. While I was living in southern California I met and married a young woman who had been afflicted with a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy, and was on Social Security Disability and State Supplemental Income. In addition she had Medicare and Medi-Cal to help pay for her medical fees and services which she desperately needed to keep her alive, and functioning.

Even back then, it took almost an act of Congress to qualify for those programs, and you had to have a redetermination every two years to see if your conditions had improved. Every two years my wife was subjected to an independent medical exam with a Medicare approved physician who reviewed all her medical records for the previous two years, and examined her, and then reported his or her findings to the Social Security Administration for review with his or her recommendations. Although my wife’s condition was only getting worse, and other than short periods of remission where her disease was in check, she was basically declining, and it was obvious it should would never be cured, still she would continue to be subjected to these exams every two years until her death in 1988. In was during this period of time that I personally became involved in the health care field, and saw first hand just how insurance companies worked, at least when it came to health care.

In 1981, I obtained a position at a very well known Hospital and Health Care center in southern California. My job was that of a Patient Financial Counselor, which entailed the discussion with patients and/or their families either prior to admission, during admission or at discharge, in order to work out arrangements for payment of the unpaid portion of their hospital bills. In most cases the balance owing was anywhere from a few hundred dollars to couple of thousand dollars depending upon the procedure done and the amount of time actually spent in the hospital. If the patient was covered by a good private insurance carrier, it was usually only a few hundred dollars. In the case where they were covered by Medicare of Medi-Cal, they ofter owed nothing. If they were indigent, and had no insurance at all, we had a social worker on staff who would attempt to get them on some form of emergency medical assistance to help pay their debt in full. However, that would soon all change with the cut backs in Medicare, and other social programs during the course of the Regan Administration. By the mid to late 1980s, insurance carriers were demanding second opinions on certain procedures, and PPOs and HMOs began to spring up all over the country. It was the beginning of managed health care, which has its own pros and cons. The biggest advantage to the employers who provided these programs to their employees of course was the costs. Costs for PPOs and HMOs were much less expensive than the traditional health care plans, and saved the employer thousands of dollars per year in costs. It was the biggest selling point for them, but left many employees with less than adequate coverage.

If an employer for example opted for an HMO plan, the employees found themselves in many cases looking for a new doctor as their doctor wasn’t a part of the HMO plan. At least with the ones who lucked out with a PPO plan could still see their own doctors of choice. The insurance just didn’t pay as much as they would if the physician was enrolled in their plans. With the HMOs, you had to sign up for a primary care physician who had to be a participating physician in their plans, or they would not pay the doctor’s fees. In addition if you had to see a specialist, your primary care physician had to get an authorization from the insurance carrier for that visit. The same held true for many procedures you may need to have, and again it was up to the primary care physician to get prior authorization, or the patient was stuck with paying the entire bill. It was during this period that medical groups or clinics began to spring up all over the country, owned and operated by the HMOs. It was their attempt to control health care costs, and manage health care for its patients. Since the inception of HMOs there have been all types of lawsuits filed against the HMOs for wrongful deaths and for lack of necessary treatment for their patients, but still they are going strong.

The question I pose is, when does good health care offset the costs? If a doctor deems it necessary for a patient to undergo a long medical treatment plan to help save their lives, or to give them a better quality of life, costs should be of secondary concern, and the patient’s well being should be placed first. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Yes, I agree that there are people who abuse the system, and run to the nearest emergency room for every little ache and pain when they are covered by a public medical program such as Medicare and Medicaid, but what about the ones who truly do have a need for emergency services, and often have to wait hours to be seen because the emergency room is filled with non emergent cases simply because they know they cannot be turned away just because they have no insurance or public insurance programs. The publicly funded programs such as Medicare and Medicaid need to start to review these non emergent cases, and refuse to pay for those services making the patient liable for any and all costs incurred for those visits.

In the 1990s, during the Clinton administration there was a push on for a complete overhaul of the health care system in this country. The concept behind the idea was to find a feasible way to offer affordable, good quality health care to all Americans, not just those who could easily afford it, or those who were already on publicly funded programs such as Medicare or Medicaid. Additionally, there was a proposal that would allow the insurance companies to receive government subsidies to offset the costs of insuring those who were considered to be high risk, or chronic patients. Several models were investigated, and in an effort to destroy any hope of resolving this issue, lobbyists and special interest groups claimed that it would be a form of socialized medicine and costs taxpayers billions of dollars, and would not necessarily offer better quality health care. In the end the only positive thing that came out of the whole deboggle, was guaranteed health care for children, and the allowing of either parent to take time off from work after a child’s birth without fear of losing their job or seniority. Even the bill which affords health care for children needs additional funding and has been lacking due to political pressure and budget restraints over the past several years.

In recent years we have been so concerned about fighting terrorism around the world, and our military and political efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan at the cost of billions of dollars, that the overhaul and reconstruction of America’s health care system has been put on the back burner. Even with a Democratically controlled Congress, the health care system has not gained any further support, nor has it been placed on anyone’s priority list. Only in recent months with the primary elections has the question of providing affordable health care for all Americans once again resurfaced and been placed on the candidates priority lists. There is no question in this author’s mind that something has to be done to protect Americans from the high costs of health care, and the ability to receive good quality health care services no matter what the persons financial situation. I am not proposing a socialized medical system, nor am I in favor of allowing non citizens to have free participation in any such system devised. However, for those hard working Americans who hold down jobs and pay their taxes, and especially those with families, need some type of guarantee, that they can obtain good quality health care when they need it, and at an affordable price.

No one wants to see people dying or not enjoying a good quality of life just simply because they cannot afford to see a physician when they really need to, or afford their medication that keeps them alive or in good health. However, we cannot afford to keep going the way we are just because we are a free enterprise system and allow for competition between businesses. While the health care industry is a business, just as with public utilities, the government does put controls on prices and price increases, and perhaps a similar program with the health care industry would work the same way. I just have a hard time swallowing the fact that we have billions of tax dollars to spend overseas on wars we can’t win, or have no reason to be involved in, other than the stuffing of someone’s pocket, yet we cannot provide affordable quality health care for our own citizens here at home. While this may be just my opinion, I think that there are many Americans out there who feel the same way, but believe that we are in the minority, and that no one in Washington, is really listening to us. Perhaps this next national election will show the bureaucrats in Washington that this is not the case, and really send a message to our political leaders that it is time for a real change.

We were moving fast and in a few minutes we reached the military barrier. We didn’t have any difficulty crossing the military and LTTE barriers.

While on our way the kerosene-lit houses made us wonder whether we were in this century or some centuries behind. By the time we reached the Kilinochchi town the German Praktikum (Internship) students were in a sleepy mood.

We stopped at the “Pandyan” restaurant for dinner. We savoured the hospitality of the restaurant during the last two-day stay in Kilinochchi. I was sitting next to Dr. Jayalath and at our table were Fredrike Wagnar, Dietmar Doring and some other German intern students.

Fredrike Wagnar had had stomach up-set for a few days since her visit into the jungle interior. The spicy foods might have caused it. But one cannot rule out that the micro-organisms in the water too might have contributed to it. Some of the micro-organisms in the small ponds were deadly and caused even deaths in the past. Fredrike was using canned mineral water and there was no chance micro-organisms got into her system.

Dr. Jayalath was telling me “why you can’t advise her that what she is eating is not good for her”. But I kept silent not wanting to spoil her appetite. Though Dr. Jayalath repeatedly asked me to advise her, I refrained.

One could not help watching Fredrike’s care and concern at the restaurant garden when she was tending to an infant who was with the mother inside a van. Fredrike extended one of her fingers into the tiny palm, and the infant immediately seized Fredrike’s finger as tightly as possible. I noticed Freidke was enjoying those moments. The basic mother-child instinct was reflected in those moments.

We began our departure from Kilinochchi and our vehicles sped along to reach the barriers of the LTTE and Sri Lanka Army. The students were in a drowsy mood. We reached the LTTE barrier in a couple of hours and passed it without difficulty.

We were moving in the no-man-zone, a one-time heavily mined territory. Though at the LTTE barrier a huge board gave warning of land mines, there were casualties. A herd of cattle and wild animals were maimed or killed. Such deadly mines around the world were laid even in deserts. Ironically while the cost to produce a landmine is as little as three US dollars removing it cost much more than thousand US dollars.

We approached the military barrier and again we had to stop for the clearance. The military officers were coming to us in a jovial mood and trying to talk to some of the German students. We couldn’t use the usual main highway and had to deviate from it before we joined the highway again. It was likely that the highway could have been mined.

I was worried when the students stepped into the side-ways as though to satisfy an adventurous instinct or may be out of happiness. The landmines issue is a global problem. These deadly landmines kill and maim hundreds of civilians every year in Iraq.

In the Kurdistan territory of Northern Iraq about one person a day steps on a mine. Afghanistan is boasting ironically having the largest industry not other than the de-mining.

We finally cleared from the last barrier of our northern mission and were moving further towards South. Our vehicles in a few minutes drive, stopped near the Vavuniya town once again for having tea break. Vavuniya is the heavily guarded last town in the northern mainland of the Island, which is controlled by the Sri Lankan Government. But the town is under the heavy influence of LTTE.

As it was midnight, and the streets were deserted, We could hardly see people in the streets. Some of the students roamed the streets leisurely. They awed by the eerie atmosphere of the war-ravaged town’s calm. We had short eats and tea at one of the few open hotels.

After a while of relax we started our journey once again. We reached a junction in Anuradhapura, an ancient historical city of the Island, where one road led to the hill country and the other towards the western coastal area of the Island.

The time had now come to bid goodbye. I wished them all and when Freidka’s turn came I observed that she looked uncomfortable. Her soft nature once again confirmed her emotional reactions.

I got in to Dr. Jayalath’s vehicle, which was going to Colombo. Dietmar Doring, students and others were heading towards western direction to Aquarius Sports Resort Hotel in Maravila where the AGSEP in operation.

Our memorable tsunami relief mission had thus come to an end.

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With the perplexities going on in my own life, I was directed to the book of Habakkuk. I gained spiritual insight for my life but I want to talk about the prophetic message for all of us. In this short little book, contains a lot of truth that is coming to pass in the near future. The Bible is full of prophecy, which means it was foretold long ago that nothing new under the sun would ever occur. We can read God’s Word almost like a newspaper of today’s events. It should make one sit up and take notice. I know I do.

In the book of Habakkuk, this prophet was perplexed as to why God would allow the wicked to prosper. Today we see this happening in the middle East. The Iranian president Ahmadinejad was granted a visa to speak from New York. He has made it clear from an interview on 60 Minutes that he is waging psychological warfare. The president of Israel said that 90% of the war on terror is in fact a media war. Ahmadinejad understands how to manipulate the media to fight the war on terror and win. This is exactly what he is doing. This terrorist presides over a fascist state known for its blatant support of terror. He arrests men whose hair is too long, and even supports the death penalty for gays. His purpose was not to show his sympathy for Americans who suffered great loss on 9-11, but rather to exploit this hallowed place as an arena to wage his psychological warfare. He used it as a platform to build his case on why he believed we were attacked. As with the denial of the Holocaust, he also denies that America was attacked by al-Qaeda. This man is gaining political strength depending on his ability to manipulate the media of the West for idealogical purposes. Now I have to ask, “God…why would you allow these people to prosper?”

Back in the days of Habakkuk, he asked this same thing concerning Israel’s enemies the Chaldeans. They were a fierce and ruthless bunch of people. They prided themselves on wicked behavior. They treated other societies like the fish of the sea and creeping things with no ruler. In other words, they gathered these people up for their selfish pleasure. The Chaldeans credited themselves for all their gain and military might. Habakkuk wanted to know why God would allow these ruthless people to pursue injustice and engage in such wickedness. “How long God, will you allow them to destroy Your people?” was the repeated question of Habakkuk. He just didn’t understand, can we?

If anything, I understand now that God did not use the Chaldeans to destroy Israel, but to chastise them. Is there a lesson for us today as well? What can God be telling us as Iran and Iraq and Afghanistan seem to be rising up against the free world? The most important thing to consider is the outcome. God had a plan then as He does today. There is nothing new under the sun.

The prophecy of Habakkuk is fulfilled in our generation. In the first chapter of this book, Yahweh informs Habakkuk that He Himself has raised up these ruthless people. Well, just who are they? They are modern day Iraq, Iran, part of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria. Do these countries sound at all familiar?

God finally responds to Habakkuk’s complaint in the second chapter. He announced that He would judge the wickedness of the Chaldeans. He told Habakkuk to write the vision down as a reminder that it would surely occur. He gave Habakkuk a description of the wicked in a comparison to the righteous.

“Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous shall live by faith.” Habakkuk 2:4

Being proud means to trust in one’s self, not God. Who does the Iranian people trust in? It certainly isn’t God. But the righteous man shall continually live by his faith. A true believer which is declared righteous by God, will persevere in his faith as a pattern of his life. Then the Lord continues to give five “woes” of warning in His coming judgment. God teaches us in this book that the lesson of sowing and reaping is a serious matter for everyone. That saying that says, “What goes around comes around” eventually will.

These five woes are directed to 5 different classes of evil doers. It is applied to nations as well as individuals. Found in the second chapter, God explains the woes which will result in the Chaldean’s demise. If God did this once, I believe He will do it again.

First God charged exhortation against the Chaldeans, such as plundering weaker nations in order to gain more. Sound like anyone in the news media today? The result to this was God would make them plunder for those nations who remained. I wonder how they will like it!

Secondly, God charged premeditated exploitation which was due to covetousness. These people wouldn’t stop until they had it all! Who does this remind you of? The result was the Chaldean leaders would shame themselves for their actions. They harmed their own souls in the end. Anyone who will not recognize Christ their Savior will be judged.

Thirdly God accused them of being ruthless despots. They lived in the lap of luxury with money gained from bloodshed and forced labor. Don’t these leaders live in palaces while their people suffer? The result for this was all their efforts were futile. Nothing lasted. Can you begin to see the bigger picture here?

Fourthly, God accused the Chaldeans of debauchery. These people were drunkards and forced others to become intoxicated as well. They made innocent people behave shamefully, making them easy prey. God’s response to this charge was to force them to drink His cup of wrath and expose them to public shame. This charge alone would be enough to turn me around!

And lastly, God accused them of idolatry. These countries are polytheistic. They serve many gods. They want to force their religion on the world, which does not include the Supreme Being and Creator of the universe. God destroyed them and demonstrated His superiority over all other gods. He didn’t stand for it then, and He won’t stand for it now.

“The thing that has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which shall be. So there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9

Take it from Solomon, a man who knew firsthand. After all he wrote it because God inspired it. Solomon takes a look at the effect of repetitious, enduring activity in God’s creation over many generations as compared to the brief and comparatively profitless activity of one man which fails to produce and enduring satisfaction. He concludes that it is wearisome and futile. He also comes to the hard fact that nothing is new and nothing will be remembered. In other words, written records which serve as reminders of events, people, places and things will all be short lived. I suppose the Iranian president considers himself an exception to God’s rules. In the end, it doesn’t really matter what any one thinks about God. The truth is, God is still God!

The key lesson to be learned from all this is, no matter what happens in life…trust God! After all was said and done, Habakkuk just praised his Lord thus causing him to relax in the midst of the storms of life. We can’t alter what has already been predestined in heaven, but we can pray that God would touch the ruthless hearts of these people who devise wickedness in the world. Be thankful that your salvation in Christ will not be judged.

When facing a crisis, trust Jesus and move forward!

All scripture taken from the MacArthur Study Bible, New American Standard version.

Vivian Gordon is led by the Holy Spirit to reach out and give the Christian and non Christian alike something to think about in their own lives. These articles are meant to edify the reader and bring them deeper. They are based on spirituality, inspiration, and today’s morals and how we need to get back to basics. Supporting Christian Communication Online http://www.churchwebsitedesign.org.uk A Christian based organization that seeks to encourage clergy and church leaders to identify the potential in developing an online church community. This project provides support and advise on ways that the internet can enhance the work of your church and also provides the tools to meet your needs. and how we need to get back to basics.