More Than Medicine: What Healthcare Says About Who We Are
A conversation about care, dignity, and what really matters: What Say Ye Thomas Merton and Mortimer Adler?
SEE: What’s Really Happening
Let me introduce my friend Margaret. After 40 years as a dedicated schoolteacher, she recently faced a difficult decision: choosing between her heart medication and buying groceries. She chose the groceries. Thankfully, her daughter intervened before anything tragic occurred.
Margaret’s story isn’t unusual. And it makes us ask: What’s going on with healthcare in our country?
Two great thinkers—Thomas Merton, a monk and writer, and Mortimer Adler, a philosopher and teacher—would tell us we’re looking at this all wrong. This isn’t just about doctors and insurance forms. It’s about something much deeper.
DISCERN: What Merton would point out:
When you go to the doctor now, how often do they really see you? I mean, really look at you, listen to your story, treat you like a whole person and not just a chart number or a 15-minute appointment slot?
Merton warned us about what he called the “technological mentality”—when people become problems to solve rather than human beings to care for. He’d walk through a modern hospital and see:
Patients are treated like broken machines on an assembly line.
People in suffering are reduced to “cases” and “data points.”
Nurses and doctors are so burned out that they can barely look you in the eye.
He would likely express what many of us feel but seldom articulate: This situation is not acceptable.
DISCERN: What Adler would add:
Adler, who spent his life teaching people to think clearly, would ask us some tough questions: What kind of society have we built where whether you live or die can depend on your bank account? When a retired teacher has to skip heart medicine? When do families go bankrupt because someone got cancer?
He would emphasize that healthcare is not like purchasing a luxury item; it concerns life itself and the essential conditions for living with dignity. He would state plainly: A society that allows preventable suffering due to inability to pay cannot be considered just.
Now, let’s consider what all this means.
Both men would tell us the same hard truth: How we treat the sick and vulnerable shows what we really believe about human beings.
The heart of the problem:
Think about it. When profit comes before care, when your access to a doctor depends on your job or your income, when insurance companies make medical decisions instead of physicians—what does that say about our values?
Merton would call this a “crisis of conscience.” We’ve built systems that contradict our own hearts. Most of us want to care for each other. But we’ve created a healthcare maze that makes it nearly impossible.
And here’s what both thinkers understood: You can’t fix a broken heart with a better calculator. This isn’t mainly about finding smarter policies or more efficient systems. Those things matter, but they’re not enough.
The deeper questions:
Who have we made invisible? (Merton would ask)
Is this worthy of us as thinking, caring human beings? (Adler would ask)
When we avoid looking at people like Margaret, when we shrug and say “that’s just how things are,” we’re settling for too little. We’re accepting less than we know is right.
Both men would agree on three things:
Healthcare shows what we really think about human dignity—not what we say we think, but what we actually believe.
A society organized only around money and efficiency will always leave the vulnerable behind.
You need both compassion and justice; warm hearts alone aren’t enough, and fair systems without warmth become cold.
ACT: So, what practical steps can we take?
You may be wondering: “What can I do about the healthcare system?”
Actually, quite a lot. Here’s what Merton and Adler might suggest you do right now:
This is Merton’s wisdom: Change begins with attention.
When you’re at the doctor’s office, really listen to the receptionist who seems stressed. Thank them by name.
If you know someone struggling with medical bills, don’t look away. Even if you can’t solve it, your presence matters; find ways to help.
Share your own stories. When someone asks “How are you?” and you’re not fine, it’s okay to say so.
The system wants to make us invisible to each other. Don’t let it.
2. Ask better questions
This is Adler’s gift: Clear thinking leads to clear action.
When politicians or pundits talk about healthcare, ask:
Would this policy treat my grandchildren with dignity if they couldn’t work?
Does this serve human beings, or just balance sheets?
Who’s left out of this solution?
You don’t need a PhD to ask these questions. You just need to care about the truth.
3. Use your voice and your vote
Past experience tells us: Systems change only through deliberate action.
Call your representatives about healthcare issues (their staff do count these calls)
Vote for people who talk about healthcare as a matter of human dignity, not just economics
Write letters to the editor sharing real stories—not statistics, but people.
4. Support those who care
Thank your doctors, nurses, and caregivers. Many of them are as frustrated as we are.
If your church or community group is addressing healthcare access, join them.
Stand up for younger people facing healthcare costs you can barely imagine.
5. Live what you believe
Both Merton and Adler would say: Don’t just critique the system. Be different from it.
Practice presence with people who are suffering. Just sit with them.
Share what you know about navigating healthcare—you’ve learned things that could help others.
Refuse to treat anyone as a “case” or a problem. See the person.
A Final Thought
Merton once wrote: “The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.”
We’ve settled for too little in caring for each other. We’ve accepted a healthcare system that contradicts our deepest values. We know it’s wrong when families are destroyed by medical debt, when people die from treatable conditions, and when nurses cry in hospital bathrooms because they can’t give patients the time they deserve.
But here’s the hope: Every one of us can take action. When you really see someone, speak up about injustice, or choose connection over indifference, you help build something better.
You may think age limits your impact, but your experience matters. You recall when communities provided for each other. You understand the value of community. You know that how we treat the vulnerable defines our humanity.
That wisdom is needed now more than ever.
The healthcare crisis is a test of who we are as a people. Let’s meet this challenge by taking action—together.