Quality health care services must be accessible and affordable

“Quality health care services must be accessible and affordable for all — not just those in certain ZIP codes or tax brackets.” — Rick Scott

Hear now, O children of the modern age, the cry of justice that echoes through this saying of Rick Scott. He speaks not merely of medicine, nor of hospitals and doctors, but of the deeper covenant that binds the human race: that the health of one is bound to the health of all. For what good is the healing art if it serves only the wealthy, and what meaning has compassion if it stops at the borders of privilege? The body of humanity is one; if one limb suffers, the whole body trembles. Thus, health care is not the luxury of a few — it is the sacred right of every living soul.

In the days of old, when plague swept through kingdoms, the poor were the first to perish, for their dwellings were thin and their medicines few. The nobles hid in marble halls, believing gold could guard them from disease — yet pestilence crept in, silent as smoke. In that dark hour, the world learned that sickness respects no rank, and that mercy cannot be bartered for coin. The same truth rings across centuries: when care is withheld from some, all suffer in time. The walls we build between the healthy and the sick crumble beneath the weight of neglect.

Consider the story of Dr. Jonas Salk, who forged the polio vaccine in the mid-20th century. When asked who owned the patent, he answered, “The people. Could you patent the sun?” With those words, he refused fortune and embraced humanity. His discovery, freely given, saved millions across the earth. He could have been a king among men, but instead, he became a servant to all. In this act, we see the spirit of Rick Scott’s truth — that care must be universal, or it ceases to be care at all.

Yet the world still divides its healing by ZIP code and tax bracket. In rich cities, the sick are wrapped in sterile light; in poor villages, mothers walk for miles seeking medicine that never comes. A child in one land receives a cure before breakfast, while another, across the border, fades in silence by nightfall. This is not the failure of medicine, but of morality. For when accessibility and affordability are denied, compassion withers into commerce, and healing becomes a privilege rather than a duty.

Beware, O leaders and makers of law, for history remembers not those who grew rich from illness, but those who healed without counting the cost. The physician who tends the poor, the nurse who stays past the hour, the neighbor who brings soup to the sick — these are the saints of the modern age. Their hands carry forward the eternal command of love: that every life, however small, deserves care. For it is not wealth that defines civilization, but how it tends to its weakest.

Let this teaching burn in your heart: the measure of a society is found not in its towers or machines, but in the gentleness of its care. The city that guards its poor will stand longer than the empire that ignores them. The people who heal without judgment will prosper, even in famine. And the nation that opens its hospitals to all — rich and poor, near and far — will shine as a beacon of righteousness among the fading stars.

Therefore, let each person act. Support those who bring medicine to forgotten places. Speak against systems that value profit above compassion. Offer your strength, your time, your coin, so that no soul is left untended. And remember, as Rick Scott has said, that health care is not a gift — it is a shared inheritance. Guard it, nurture it, and extend it, that future generations may live not in fear of sickness, but in the light of collective care.

For the health of one is the health of all. To deny another healing is to wound oneself. And to heal without bias — that is to walk the path of the wise, the merciful, and the eternal.