Seeking Divine Protection--WaPo

[Demeter]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/22/AR2005102200046.html?referrer=email

"Seeking Divine Protection
Some Believers Put Faith in Church Plans Instead of Standard Health Insurance

By Sandra G. Boodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; Page HE01

When his wife spent a week in Georgetown University Hospital's intensive care unit last year recovering from life-saving brain surgery, Joe Huff never worried about who would pay her $120,000 hospital bill, even though his family has no health insurance. Huff, a 52-year-old Laytonsville real estate agent, said he trusted that a bill-sharing cooperative of evangelical Christians he joined 10 years ago -- and to which he faithfully mailed a $346 monthly check -- would come through, just as it had when the youngest of the couple's seven children was hospitalized with spinal meningitis two years ago...

Huff and his family are among the 60,000 members of Medi-Share, the largest of a little-known group of nonprofit organizations that market themselves as faith-based alternatives to health insurance. The half-dozen plans, which claim a total membership of more than 120,000 Americans, are especially popular in the South. The appeal of these "church plans," as they are known in the insurance industry, is both economic and religious. Because their monthly cost is roughly half that of conventional health insurance premiums, they appeal to those who find medical insurance difficult or impossible to afford. And because their membership is strictly limited to evangelical Christians certified as regular churchgoers by their pastors, they cater to people opposed to "subsidizing high-risk, sinful lifestyles," in the words of Medi-Share's Web site....

Tobacco use, immoderate drinking, homosexuality and extramarital sex are strictly forbidden, and anyone caught violating these proscriptions can be expelled. The plans don't pay for abortion,or treatment of sexually transmitted diseases or HIV that was not, as Samaritan puts it, "contracted innocently." While each plan's rules differ, most exclude coverage of preexisting conditions, as well as treatment related to cancer recurrence, serious heart disease, obesity, psychiatric disorders or vision problems.

"Our greatest sin is racing down to the buffet after the sermon," quipped E. John Reinhold, a former insurance executive who is the founding chairman of Medi-Share, a subsidiary of the American Evangelistic Association, based in Melbourne, Fla...."



A very interesting peek into the underbelly of America. Of course, it doesn't matter that obesity-related illness is the #1 killer to these people "racing down to the buffet after the sermon." No, homosexuality and STDs are so much worse! I hate to think that this is why we can't get single payer universal coverage.

[proReality]

1. It seems they've ruled out nearly everything

people need coverage for but the common cold.

[calico1]

6. Hmmmm....

The plan doesn't cover heart disease, vision problems or recurring cancer? I suppose these are all sinful conditions people bring on themselves. :eyes:

[ret5hd]

2. Gluttony...isn't that one of the seven deadly sins?

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Um...this is, of course, what insurance companies initially were

(Hint: That's why they were "mutuals").


Long before the days of agglomeration and lately demutualization, of course...

[1932]

4. hopefully more groups will do this and offer competition for the

health insurance industry.

Also, they should use their economic power to negotiate lower prices from health care providers.

[MountainLaurel]

5. Cross-post to thread in Health forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=222&topic_id=2491&mesg_id=2491

[cantstandbush]

7. I really don't have a problem with what's been described, exclusions too.

If you don't meet the exclusion requirements shop for insurance somewhere else. As long as people enrolled in plans don't take from the existing public plans at others' expense. It all sounds good to me. Where can i sighn up?

[WhiteTara]

9. well, try this on for an answer

"One way Medi-Share controls costs is by requiring its members to seek approval by telephone before non-emergency treatment, or pay $250 to the plan. Callers are routed to a medical panel headed by John E. Evans, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Vicksburg, Miss., who also sits on Medi-Share's 55-member board of overseers."
snip
In another case, Evans advised 62-year-old Marianne Petersson, who has high cholesterol and had been hospitalized after a series of mini-strokes, to adopt a dietary regimen that included a water-only fast for three days, followed by 11 days of a water-and-fruit diet.

Evans, who does not have a Florida medical license, said he is not practicing medicine by dispensing such advice. He likens it to what he would tell "someone who stops me at church and asks me what to do."

Evans, 71, declined to disclose his Medi-Share salary except to say, "I'm paid significantly less than I would ordinarily be paid." He said he is not enrolled in Medi-Share, but has health insurance coverage through Medicare and the American Medical Association."

so, anyway, I think that if I went to a doctor who said I needed heart surgery and this was the answer to my "needs", I would be sorely disappointed in my health care provider.

I think the reason corruption is so easy in this country is that everyone wants something for nothing and even if it looks to good to be true, they want to believe it will be true anyway and make their decisions from there. Also, people tend to look at the first part that looks good, don't bother to do the final work and then wonder why they got fooled.

[Demeter]

8. Did You Read the Rest of the Article?

These "plans" are Ponzi schemes lying in wait like bear traps under concealing brush. I wouldn't run to join up.