IT MUST BE one of the noblest of motives—to provide affordable, accessible, and effective healthcare to everyone. Governments around the world are wrestling with this challenge. Some already have sweeping government-paid healthcare plans. Others involve different models involving private insurance companies or employer-based plans. Still other governments are in the process of continually changing their healthcare plans. One thing is certain—the only thing universal about the plans so far seems to be the desire for them.

Unfortunately, any approach becomes more political and complicated when we consider that everyone must bear the cost—either through taxes, insurance plans, or by fee-for-service arrangements. In essence, under any of the systems currently in place, consumers are presented with a materialistic healthcare system that is increasingly expensive to operate and lacks the resources to be accessible to everyone—in other words, to be truly universal. The driving forces of big business, insurance, medical suppliers, and care providers represent huge financial interests. And all too often, when governments and big business are involved, the public becomes suspicious, even cynical about the outcome.

In recent years, it may be true that the rising cost of medical treatment has escalated the issue of healthcare on a global level, but the desire for a better, more accessible, and available system of healthcare goes back thousands of years. Christ Jesus encountered this desire with many of the people he met and healed through divine power.

In one situation, a woman approached him who had been hemorrhaging for many years. She had spent all she had on the physicians who attended to her, but was getting worse. She was desperate to find healing. She looked to Jesus, reached out to him, and was suddenly healed (see Mark 5:25–34).

Can you imagine how startling this would have been to her? Years of suffering, paying for expensive, ineffective treatment, and then one day it was all over. No more suffering, no therapy, no recuperation—just one visit that resulted in a complete healing.

The Christ-gift of healing to this woman actually is perpetual and timeless. And it is available to everyone, at any time, and under any condition. This is what Christian Science is all about.

However, any healthcare expert today can tell you that a healthcare system is only as good as its delivery system. Jesus' ministry blessed multitudes of people, and his disciples learned how to heal the way he did. But in the decades and centuries that followed, this remarkably successful healing ministry slowly faded away, and maybe along with it faded the prospect of a universal healthcare based on prayer.

Christian Science teaches that Jesus' healing ministry, as well as his promise of a Comforter that teaches and demonstrates humanity's intact relationship with God, is timeless. It's just as potent today as it was 2,000 years ago. And the healings published in this magazine offer evidence that this promise continues to be fulfilled.

Those of us who have experienced Christ-healing, and have learned about it through Christian Science, are in a position to provide it to others. The questions we face are: How devoted are we as providers, ready to provide this system to everyone? Do others know it is available? Are they in a position to use it or at least be benefited by it?

The expression of divine Love to meet human needs—giving unselfishly to others, as Jesus did—is the very foundation of Christianity. He expected us to follow in the Christ's footsteps and conduct our own ministries of prayer and healing.

Consider the woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage. She reached out physically to Jesus as he moved through a crowd, but she was also mentally reaching for the Christ—for the divine Truth that brings healing. Maybe she was motivated in part by all the money she had spent; perhaps she was initially frustrated by the many years of illness; but still, she reached out for the hem of Christ's robe. Jesus felt that touch. He stopped walking, discovered who was reaching out for help, and blessed her.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote about this kind of spiritual perception and its importance in healing: "We approach God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidelity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all human need and are able to discern the thought of the sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them. ... The greater or lesser ability of a Christian Scientist to discern thought scientifically, depends upon his genuine spirituality. This kind of mind-reading is not clairvoyance, but it is important to success in healing, and is one of the special characteristics thereof" (Science and Health, p. 95).

Consider for a moment the ability to know all human need—what it means to discern the thought of those who are sick and sinning—and then being able to heal with that discernment. Isn't that what Christ Jesus did for that woman? Isn't this the way to providing real, universal healthcare?

The Christly model of universal healthcare certainly is as available as God's unconditional love to everyone. And its redemptive, restorative, life-changing power goes way beyond just repairing the physical body. However, the human family needs to know this and feel the divine Love behind this power. As governments wrestle with spiraling healthcare costs, and the disappointments that attend such costs, there will be more and more people like that woman looking for the hem of Christ's robe.

Think about all the people who have already spent all they have on physicians and insurance co-payments, and even spent many hours in frustration with the bureaucracy of their current system. How many of them are reaching out to touch the Christ without really knowing what they are looking for? How many in their desperation will be receptive in some way to a spiritual approach to healthcare?

Our love for God and mankind enables us to detect this reaching out. Our devotion to this Christ Science equips us to respond effectively. And our willingness and readiness to provide what Jesus established will always bring the blessing, as it did to the woman he healed, saying, "Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague" (Mark 5:34).

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