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3 Case Study BENJAMIN, a medical director for a large health management organization (HMO), wants to use his volunteer time to work for an important social cause. For instance, he’s aware of the fact that 28 million people in America are classified as “working poor”—those who have one or more full-time jobs, but whose earnings are low enough to keep them below the poverty line and unable to make ends meet. He is also aware of the fact that many of these people lack adequate food, clothing, sanitation facilities, and health care, and that they often become homeless. Yet, Benjamin has a finite amount of time and money. How can he help? Should he: • volunteer in a soup kitchen; • volunteer for a program that teaches literacy and job skills to teenagers and/or adults; • work in an advocacy organization that seeks to increase government funding for the poor; • run for political office in order to try to address social problems from inside the political establishment; • use his time and money to support a candidate for political office who makes poverty a central issue of his or her platform; • give donations to organizations that serve the poor. What should each of us as individuals, and all of us as a nation, do to help alleviate poverty? Benjamin realizes that concerns about how to help others should not only affect what he does with his spare time and money, but also what he does at work. As a medical director, he does his best to ensure that his HMO’s members will receive quality care, but ultimately, he has to make sure that the HMO he works for remains solvent. This means that he must sometimes deny coverage for certain procedures or deny benefits to some subscribers of his company’s HMO. There are some 47 million Americans without health insurance, and millions more are underinsured. To what extent is this Benjamin’s problem ? What, if anything, should he do about this, both in his professional Case 1: Poverty and Health Care Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: SOCIAL JUSTICE 4 life and in his volunteer activities? Does his responsibility change if he’s working for a for-profit HMO vs. a nonprofit HMO? Who has a duty to provide health care for the poor and the uninsured? Does the duty belong to HMOs like the one that Benjamin works for? Or does it belong to the government? Employers? Social welfare organizations? Religious institutions? Private citizens? All or none of the above? Peter Singer, a Jewish philosopher at Princeton University, has written that Americans have a duty to tax themselves to provide basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, and health care to those in the world that have much less than they do. Do you agree that it is our civic responsibility to help alleviate poverty and assist the uninsured and underinsured? If so, to what extent? 5 Traditional Sources Compiled by Uzi Weingarten and the Editors Poverty 1. Leviticus 19:18 Love your fellow as yourself. 2. Tosefta, Pe’ah 4:18 Charity and kindness are equivalent to all the commandments of the Torah. 3. Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 14a Rabbi Hama, son of Rabbi Hanina, said: What is the meaning of the verse, “You shall follow the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 13:5)? … [It means that] a person should imitate the ways of the Holy Blessed One. Just as God clothes the naked … so too you should clothe the naked [poor]. The Holy Blessed One visited the sick … so too you should visit the sick. The Holy Blessed One buried the dead … so too you should bury the dead. The Holy Blessed One comforted mourners … so too you should comfort mourners … Rabbi Samlai taught: The Torah opens with acts of kindness and closes with acts of kindness. It opens with acts of kindness, as it is written: “The Lord God made leather cloaks for Adam and his wife, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). It closes with acts of kindness, as it is written: “And he buried him in the valley” (Deuteronomy 34:6). 4. Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 49b Rabbi Elazar said: Charity is rewarded [by God] in accordance with the kindness that is in it. 5. Jerusalem Talmud, Ta’anit 21a “I have placed my word in your mouth” (Isaiah 51:16), this refers to Torah. “And in the shadow of my hand I have covered you” (ibid.), this refers to acts of kindness. This teaches you that whoever...

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