By John Ballard
Pay for what works. What a concept!
Oddly, no one seems to have thought about it before.
...Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare (the health insurance system for people connected to the military), the federal employees� health benefit system, and private insurers have spent tens of millions of dollars on non-medical services, such as prayers, for Christian Scientist patients �who choose to rely solely upon a religious method of healing.� There is no persuasive evidence that prayer treatments work. A recent large study found that prayers had no effect on the rate of complications among heart surgery patients. In fact, patients who knew others were praying for them had slightly more post-operative complications than patients who did not.
Even though prayers are obviously not medical treatments, Christian Science Practitioners charge for their services at rates comparable to those of real health care providers. In Minnesota, a Christian Science Practitioner reportedly charged the parents of Ian Lundman, an 11-year-old with diabetes, $446 for two days of prayer-treatments. (Ian died.) In Michigan, a Christian Science Practitioner demanded $1,775 after praying for someone in a coma. State Farm initially refused to pay but capitulated after they were sued.
Check out the rest at the link. I'm getting tired of posting the same stuff over and over. My guess is that readers at this site already know the drill and are not apt to learn anything new from stuff like this.
Overnight, by the way, it looks as though opponents of reform will be dragging out the old abortion issue again, although it has little or nothing to do with problems addressed by the legislation.That will be a protracted, bruising debate when FOCA eventually comes up. But I'm beginning to wonder if that day will come before the next three years is up.
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