Seeking Divine Protection

[MountainLaurel]

Faith-based health care, you knew it was coming:

snip

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.

snip

All three of the largest plans -- Medi-Share, Samaritan and the Christian Brotherhood Newsletter, headquartered in Barberton, Ohio -- impose strict limits on treatment, restrictions that would be illegal under regulations that apply to conventional insurance.

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.


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

[pecwae]

1. This gets me:

"While each plan's rules differ, most exclude coverage of preexisting conditions, as well as treatment related to cancer recurrence..."

I take it to mean that if a member doesn't pray hard enough during their first battle with cancer they deserve to die if it comes back. How very compassionate.

[sui generis]

2. the insurance companies LOVE this

this is not insurance. This is just another corporation fleecing people and not paying out for anything.

If it could be shown that being black put you in a "high risk" segment, then they would also make it "strictly forbidden" to be black.

god love those loving charitable christians - they're the bomb! :sarcasm: