Faith Healer HMOs?
From the Boston Globe [Hat tip Right Rev Rabbi Judah]
Christian Science Provision Sought in Healthcare LawOfficials of the Christian Science Church are worried that the state's healthcare law will exclude faith healing as a recognized health benefit for its employees who do not receive traditional medical care because of their religious beliefs. The church, based in Boston, holds that illnesses should be treated with prayer, but a draft version of the healthcare reform regulations specifies that employers must contribute to workers' medical insurance coverage to comply with the landmark law that takes effect next year. Those that do not will be assessed $295 per employee annually. [...]
Church officials this month told the Division of Health Care Financing and Policy that the non medical insurance coverage it offers employees should qualify as healthcare. It wants the rules to require "health care" without referring to "medical services." [...]
Along with written comments, the church provided fact sheets describing the two health plans it offers employees.
For those who are not Christian Scientists, it pays about 70 percent of the premium for a standard managed-care medical plan provided by Tufts Health Plan.
The second plan -- for employees who are church members -- is offered directly through the church and covers faith healing. It pays 90 percent of the cost of treatment by faith healers, who pray for patients in an effort to heal them of physical and spiritual ailments. [...]
Mark Unger, who describes himself as a metaphysician, qualifies under the church's faith-healing insurance plan to treat patients through prayer. He said his job is "to lift up the patient above the physical level to the spiritual, to get them to look beyond the symptoms to the spiritual truth about what's going on."
Unger charges $32 for a treatment, during which he prays for a patient to promote healing. [...]
While he doesn't make medical diagnoses, Unger says he has cured a patient's skin cancer with prayer. "It dried up and dropped off," he said. READ IT ALL
Bill McCartney
