The debate over the health care bill has reached a new level – a spiritual level – with a provision in the health care legislation requiring the consideration of prayer treatments as medical expenses brought to light.
This provision, quietly inserted, in an uncommon show of bipartisanism, by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) with the support of Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments in order to ensure that no one is discriminated against in seeking “religious and spiritual healthcare.” Critics fear the precedent this could have on the constitutional separation of church and state, as well as whether it would encourage other religious groups to seek insurer reimbursement for their own spiritual healing.
The provision would apply only to insurance policies offered in the version of a bill where consumers would have the option to shop for plans which have met government standards. Two committees in the House have included their measures in the health care overhaul, but it was removed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) after protests from members who said it was unconstitutional. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) is considering whether to include it in the consolidated bill he will send to the Senate floor.
Dr. Norman Fost, a pediatrician and medical ethicist at the University of Wisconsin, said the measure went against the attempt to reduce health care costs by improving evidence-based medical work. “They want a special exception for people who use unproved treatments, and they also want to get paid for it,” he said. “They want people who use prayer to have it just automatically accepted as a legitimate therapy.”
The Church of Christ, Scientists, more commonly known as the Christian Scientists, have long used paid prayer practitioners, often in place of medical doctors. Members of the church have been convicted in criminal cases where children have died after visiting prayer practitioners instead of medical doctors. Private insurers have been paying for the practice for nearly 90 years, but have recently started insisting on medical care that had proven medical results.
Christian Science prayer sessions are also one of the only religious treatments the Internal Revenue Service considers as tax deductible. Some federal medical insurance programs also already reimburse for prayer treatment.
Phil Davis, a senior Christian Science Church official, rejected criticism of the effectiveness of healing prayer. “We think this is an important aspect of the solution, when you are talking about not only keeping the cost down, but finding effective healthcare,” he said.
The Church has said it consulted legal experts to help draft legislation which would be constitutional as well as hiring a major Washington lobbying firm to push the provision. Critics believe that the church, founded in Boston in 1879, were vocal constituents in Senator Kerry’s decision to support the provision.
Whitney Smith, a press secretary for the Kerry campaign, said that the bill was “not government mandated expenses for religious services.” Though the Christian Science Church is based in Massachusetts, she said, Kerry was in support of it purely because of its anti-discrimination provisions.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy