Well, I suppose this was inevitable:
CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS, who don’t believe in conventional medicine, are nonetheless keen to grab some of the cash the government will soon be splurging on health reform.
Church leaders want health insurers to reimburse “spiritual health” practitioners who pray for the sick, reports the Washington Post.
A proposal to that effect was stripped out of the House health bill, but the Church is lobbying to have it re-inserted into the Senate version.
Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, taught that sickness is a delusion. Rather than consulting a doctor when you are ill, you should pray, she advised. Her modern-day followers sometimes take this literally.
Their children occasionally die of preventable or treatable diseases. The Church would like taxpayers to subsidise this sort of nonsense. And Senators John Kerry and Orrin Hatch apparently agree.
Well, it makes about as much sense as anything else in the health care bill, so why not ?
November 24th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Doug, thank you for mentioning this on your blog. This is a very troubling notion and there is an excellent write up on another site I like to frequent: http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=1190
The main point here is, if we start to pay for ONE form of nonsense, then why not reimburse ALL forms? How long will it take for every quack to consider their treatment as necessary and worthy of inclusion? Why not reimburse for silliness like magnet braclets or acupuncture? This is the most dangerous implication of federal reform of the healthcare system in my opinion. This would easily unhinge any attempt at cost savings if “alternative”, non-scientific, and unprovable modalities are allowed access as well. We’ve begun that process already with the creation of NCCAM (a good discussion can be found here: http://www.csicop.org/si/show/ongoing_problem_with_the_national_center).
This is absolutely something to write your representatives about. Disagreements about healthcare reform itself aside, there should at least be a robust scientific standard and rejection of psuedoscience in any reform that passes.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
and this is what happens when we nationalize healthcare… all funding decisions are made by the political process… i wonder if all those pro-choice woments groups who are pushing for this bill realize it is likely going to result is more restrictions on abortions.
November 24th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I hope they get it. If people have to pay they may start questioning the legitimacy of prayer. Currently people use prayer because it doesn’t cost them anything. They use both and if the medicine works they attribute the success to the prayer. If people have to choose, then medicine wins, and we wont have to worry about the morons who chose prayer for long.
November 24th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I’ve had better luck with the copper bracelets. Even got one deducted on my FSA, believe it or not.