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From Politico:

Today after almost a century of trying, today after over a year of debate, today after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America.

Yep – we have immortalized the corruption and cowardice of Senators and Congressman. This law puts in writing how Nelson, Stupak and other pro-life democrats sold out their values.  It records the embarrassment of ignoring due process – and will forever herald a worldview that puts the self above all the rest.

Conservatives, though, are not out of this fight.  If anything, we are now more ready for an election revolution.  From the Heritage Foundation:

Obamacare is today’s Intolerable Act. And just as the colonists banded together to enact change after those acts were passed, so should America respond to Obamacare. This law must be repealed.

November cannot come soon enough.

The Honorable Robert Corker
United States Senate
800 Market Street, Suite 121
Knoxville, TN 37902

Dear Senator Corker:
According to an article published by the Associated Press on May 18, 2009 (“What to tax to pay for health care?“), the Congress is considering taxing health insurance benefits. Additionally, tax savings items like flexible health accounts will also be things of the past as the federal government looks for ways to fund a universal health system.

Senator, I am a small business owner. While I do not currently have employees, I still provide health insurance for my family. I use a Health Savings Account in conjunction with a health insurance plan that provides for catastrophic coverage. Visits my family makes to the doctor, as well as prescription costs, come out of that HSA. The money I put into the HSA reduces my overall tax liability. This and other tax reductions are essential to small business owners like myself as we are responsible for the full amount of social security, federal, state, and local taxes.

Because my insurance program does not cover doctor’s visits until I reach my deductible of $5000, I must take an active role in managing my health costs. It means that I question every test that is run, and every procedure that is performed, always asking if these things are truly necessary or are just being performed to satisfy insurance and legal risk analyses. It means that I must take care of myself away from the doctor – watching what I eat, and exercising properly. My doctor is also free to be a doctor, as we both are equally engaged in keeping me healthy. If major health care is needed, I am covered for 100% of the costs after I meet the deductable. All this for less than $200 a month in premium plus whatever I budget to go into my HSA.

It seems that HSAs and similar health insurance programs would be the answer to the cost of health care in this country. The insurance premiums are very low – as my insurance company only covers the cost of catastrophic care. There is a financial incentive to be healthy – as every visit to the doctor requires a check. Doctors can be doctors, instead of seeing every patient as a potential lawsuit and thus ordering expensive tests. Businesses of all sizes would better be able to offer this form of insurance, as well as offering employees assistance in setting up the HSAs. While the deductibles are often high – mine is $5000 – once that is met the costs are usually met IN FULL by the insurance company. The tragic cases of bankruptcy brought on by families struggling to meet health care costs ranging in the hundreds of thousands would be the exception, not the rule that we see today.

I urge you to block any attempt to put the federal government in charge of our health care. We do not need Washington to provide health care; we need you to step out of the way. We need you to put a stop to the lawsuit craziness that drives doctors and insurance companies to order every test, procedures that are costly and often unnecessary, in order to cover risk exposure. We need you to block any tax increase that takes away the ability of small businesses to provide responsible health insurance to our employees. In short, we need you to send a clear message that health insurance is not the responsibility of the federal government.

As always, we appreciate that work that you do. Please know that you are in our prayers.

Sincerely yours,

Reuel K. Sample

In a past life as a salesman for NFIB, my job was to talk to small business owners about the problems that they were facing. Inevitably, we often would start talking about challenges at home as well – as the line between home and small business is often very blurred. Small business owners are lone rangers by nature – but this loneliness saddened me.

It also infuriated me, as the vast majority of these businesses were owned by Christians. I could see pictures on their office walls of church functions, I could tell they were believers from the way they talked, and I usually saw a Bible somewhere on their desk. What raised my hackles is that as I talked to these hard working men and women, it dawned on me that never had anyone from their church visited them at work. The one place that defines an entrepreneur – their business – is the one place that the church never seemed to want to go.

If the church is going to have an impact – be it at the local or national level – we need to get out of our walls and meet people where they are working. The reason why military chaplains are so effective – and I served as one – is they are going through the same things that their flock is going through. Hospital chaplains do the same – visiting the sick and their family members where they are hurting the most. But the local church is nowhere present – expecting people to come to Sunday worship, Bible studies, small groups, and youth programs – but never going to them.

As humans, we are “hard-wired” to work. God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden to till it, to care for it – in short, to work. Work, in many ways, defines who we are. Men – more so than women – will usually respond to the question “Who are you” with “I am steel worker”. Small business owners – be they male or female – are even more apt to define themselves by their work. Of course we are much more than what we do – we are after all Children of God, as Christians heirs to the Kingdom of Grace. But we cannot dismiss the simple fact that we also see ourselves by what we do.

Jesus did say “Come to me” (Matt 11:28), but He also said to His disciples “Go and make disciples…” (Math 28:19) The church – her pastors, elders, officers – needs to go out to where people are. Meet them at work, at the office, on the floor of the factory, out in the hot sun. The church needs to see how her members sweat away the day – whether they are straining their back or worried about how to make payroll. Only when the church understands the very basic cares and triumphs of her members can she then go about helping them lead transformed lives in the love and grace of Jesus Christ.