Mother Teresa and Benjamin Franklin on Healthcare

One of my passions is reforming healthcare and the medical industry. I support a system of limited, streamlined government — one that works from behind the scenes to keep the system working properly. In my concept of Salvation, politicians exist only to serve the citizens of their countries, states and municipalities, not to get rich off of the fruits of their labor. Part of that effort involves outlawing lobbyists and special interest groups, and removing the trappings of power that politicians all over the world enjoy today.

In Salvation Time Prime Ministers, Presidents, Senators, Congressmen and women and anyone else who holds public office pays for their own home, their own transportation and their own meals. So when I talk about a government assisting with healthcare, I’m talking about a very small, very limited one. To explain my ideas, in Step Two the soul of fictional Israel Prime Minister Eyal Grad discusses his innovations in medicine with two of the Advanced Souls – Mother Teresa and Benjamin Franklin:

“Now then,” Moses continued, “it’s time for a conversation about medicine. I call Mother Teresa and Benjamin Franklin to the stage.” In an instant, the two Advanced Souls appeared before their audience.

“Thank you Mr. Moses,” they humbly replied. “We would like to ask Eyal Grad to open up the dialogue by sharing with us the exceptional improvements he enacted in his own country with respect to healthcare and the medical profession. Mr. Grad?” The Prime Minister beamed. He was eager to inform his colleagues about Israel’s successful health care system.

“Thank you Mother Teresa, Mr. Franklin,” he began. “After my country’s isolation I decided we could no longer depend on other nations for medical advancement and innovation. We had to find a way to make healthcare and medicine cheap and effective, with a doctor-patient ratio of 20 to one. So my administration determined that our immediate goal, our most pressing job, was to produce 3,000 doctors per year. And I am proud to say we achieved our objectives.

“How did we do it?

“By using common sense and logic; by setting the system up to win, not fail. We realized that our job was to help aspiring doctors pass medical tests and earn their degrees with the understanding that yes, you do need a certain amount of intelligence to become a doctor but that the most important thing in medicine is the physical body. Every human being’s body does most of its own healing because the best doctor in the world is within. Every patient simply needs the right person in the form of a doctor to guide them on the path to healing and wellness. Someone accredited to advise them, ‘Hey listen, you need to do this; you need to take that.’ These doctors don’t have to be super-geniuses because the body heals itself.

“Today in Israel there’s a doctor living two-to-three houses or apartments away from every citizen. So if you have a medical question there’s always a medical professional nearby to ask. Drugs are also very inexpensive, with pills costing pennies as opposed to dollars. That’s because we’ve eliminated excessive and burdensome government regulations and fines that imposed millions of dollars on pharmaceutical companies before they could even bring a drug out of clinical trials and into the market. Yes, testing must be done to ensure safety and effectiveness. Clinical trials must be rigid and strong. Therefore our solution was to create a volunteer committee of retired doctors to provide oversight and input into the research and development of drugs. And although these doctors declined any kind of monetary reward for their time and expertise, we decided we’d compensate them anyway, in addition to featuring them on prominent television programs to express our gratitude and give them the recognition they deserve. We also eliminated the oppressive fines on pharmaceutical companies that made their products so expensive for the average consumer.”

“Wonderful, Mr. Grad!” Mother Teresa beamed. Then turning her attention to all of the New Souls, she reprimanded them, “I hope you are all listening carefully to Mr. Grad because he has laid the groundwork for a successful and humane medical system. All of you must do as he has done, especially with respect to the pharmaceutical industry. You demand that your governments get out of the pharmaceutical business and let them do what they need to do, which is to produce good drugs to help people heal. And stop with the greed!”

Later in the dialogue, Benjamin Franklin inquires about the management of the Israeli medical system and asks about holistic healing:

“If I may Mr. Grad,” Benjamin Franklin began, “who runs your Israeli hospitals?”

“Sir, our hospitals are mostly government-managed. But keep in mind our Israeli government is much more streamlined than ever before. It’s not an intrusive government seeking to control how much money everybody makes but a smart government that works from the bottom-up and administers from behind the scenes. Unlike what we’ve seen during most of the End Days, our politicians are nothing more than clerks that ensure everything is functioning properly. And as I mentioned, we reward the retired doctors who form our oversight committee with money and recognition simply because it’s the right thing to do.”

“My compliments sir,” Franklin replied earnestly. “I just have one other question. You know when I was in human form I always said, ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ You’ve mentioned traditional medicine and pharmaceuticals but I’m wondering, do your  Israeli doctors also practice what’s still frustratingly known on earth as ‘alternative’ therapies? By that I mean treatments that address the whole of a human being—physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological.”

“Mr. Franklin I am so glad you brought that up,” Grad enthused. “Yes, in Israel we very much promote and provide all sorts of healing modalities including hypnosis, past life regression, massage, acupuncture, Reiki, chiropractic, aromatherapy and just about all treatments not yet considered ‘traditional’ in most countries. We firmly believe in holistic healing because all of these therapies play a vital role in the overall wellness of human beings.”

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