Big business. . . at what cost?

Nearly everything that was once charity has become big business.  Let me give you a couple of examples.  In a report, Roman Catholic charities have received $800 Million from the federal government to transport and care for illegal immigrants.  Trans promoters say that each conversion costs $150K and multiply that by a million or more and you come up with an industry that is bigger than the entire film industry.  I once dealt with real people handling my insurance claims but now have layer upon layer of administration between me and the actual payment of my bills -- layers that were there only recently and supposedly save money.  Watch TV or look on your screens to find drug industry ads galore -- because there is big money in selling drugs, at least the new ones! 

I am not against business.  My father and his father before him were businessmen.  Their small businesses were not simply good for them but good for the communities in which they lived and the people around them.  What does concern me is how some things that were not the domains of business in the past have become almost the exclusive sphere of business now.  Charities have become, for some a small part but in others the majority of their work, businesses competing for the grants or governmental funds that pay the bills.  They do not provide the services themselves but many have become general contractors who take the money as NGOs and then find local small contractors to actually provide those services.  They are still called charities but this is a far cry from the time in which church organizations raised their own funds from the generosity of church members and provided the services themselves.  So does that mean that they are essentially different than they once were?

The WheatRidge, Bethesda, Lutheran World Relief, and so many other big names from the past are not providing directly what they once did but have become funneling agencies who find and support local groups to provide those services.  In the process, they have also become advocacy organizations for the general cause -- pleading for the needs before governments and legislatures.  Again, I am not saying all of this is bad or evil or anything of the sort.  But it is very different than what those organizations were created to do and how they once did it.  Furthermore, they are more and more distant from the churches that were once not only their constituency but they fund base.  So what does that mean?  Again, I do not have all the answers but I am concerned that we do not seem to be raising questions.  These parachurch organizations may do good for people in need but are they really connected to the churches that once formed them or engaged in the work the churches once formed them to do or have they left behind this past to honor it as legacy rather than agency?

The medical establishment still has the legacy names -- Lutheran, Methodist, St. Thomas, etc... but they are in the same boat.  They are non-profits run to make money for their causes and it has become very big business.  Add to this the fact that in many communities hospitals are franchises or part of a chain of profitmaking endeavors.  They serve, yes, but in order to make money.  I deal with some of them all the time and it is very hard to distinguish the difference between a non-profit and a corporate hospital or medical services model.  You have probably had the same experience.  Has it improved health care or made for more access for those in need?  I have already written before of how the promotion of the newest and latest drugs on print and social media and TV have transformed how we see prescriptions and what we expect from them.  To what extent has this side of the business shaped or influenced the provider side?  Are we asking those questions and do we want to know?

Now we come to those with gender dysphoria.  They already suffer from a much higher than normal incidence of depression, suicide, and loneliness.  As if that were not enough, they have been noticed by big business but is that a good thing?

“The Gender Industrial Complex” has suggested that this is big business and a new market niche for al already crowded medical industrial complex.  Look at the numbers and the issues:

• While the total cost of transitioning varies widely by individual, lifelong use of cross-sex hormones could cost up to $300,000 or more per person, while a full surgical transition could cost more than $150,000.
• The potential health effects of undergoing transition are numerous, including increased risk of cancer, nerve damage, chronic pain, sexual dysfunction, mental health issues, and the need for additional surgeries.
• A number of transgender surgery providers, including Cedars Sinai, the Regents of the University of Michigan, the Mount Sinai Health System, and several others, were each estimated to bring in over $100 million in revenue in 2022 from these practices.
• Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and AbbVie lead the way in hormone production, with 2022 revenues of $74 million and $51 million, respectively, from those products.
• Total revenues for transgender drugs and surgeries in 2023 were estimated to surpass $4.4 billion. And by 2030, the market is expected to grow beyond $7.8 billion.

Transitioning to a different gender is not just a matter of a few visits to a doctor or a few injections.  It’s a lifelong process of regular medication and a long series of surgical procedures -- all of it comes with a price tag and a potential to make some big money. 

So there you have a few of my questions.  Is the business model the best to deal with charities and medicine?  Is the business model able to keep in check the need for income and the best interest of the patient?  What about church charities that have become non-governmental organizations, funneling the taxpayer funds to a cause but not quite able to say anything about the faith while doing it?  All of this leaves me frustrated and not a little angry.