Greg Fish reports at [ weird things ] how:

the priest will charge you now

2009 NOVEMBER 6

Hey, did you hear this one? So a priest walks into a hospital room and hands a patient an invoice for services rendered. What, you’re not laughing? Then you sure won’t be if a little known and rarely mentioned provision in the Senate version of the healthcare bill passes and your insurance premiums are going to have to cover patients who eschew doctors in favor of faith healing. Basically, this provision wants to force corporations that already don’t want to pay for numerous legitimate medical expenses or act as a review panel for doctors to protect their profit margins, to cough up the money to cover prayer like they would cover medical treatments.

If you think this is some random passage stuffed in by a special interest group, you’d be only half right since it was crafted by Sen. Orrin Hatch and was supported by the late Ed Kennedy. Also trying to lend his credentials is the man who spectacularly fumbled his way out of a potential presidency, Sen. John Kerry. Why would Kerry and Edwards support a bill forcing insurers to cover faith healing? Because their home state is also the HQ of the so-called Christian Science movement which thinks that prayer can be just efficient as actual medicine so an already tax exempt organization collecting $20 to $40 per prayer session and impromptu Bible study would also get checks from insurance companies. And that’s on top of the fact that the IRS will already allow patients of their squad of faith healers to deduct their expenses as medical in nature. Oh and here’s the punchline…

“We are making the case for [faith treatment], believing there is a connection between healthcare and spirituality,” said Davis, who distributed 11,000 letters last week to Senate officials urging [for] support on the measure.

“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.

So if anyone thought that the US Republican Party was the only one that had taken leave of its senses, had lost touch with reality and was motivated only by the aroma of lobbyists' lunches, there is some bad news.

Might help explaining why Obama is failing...

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Indeed. It is surely politically incorrect to say that US government is no longer democratic but has been sold to the highest bidders.

So I'll refrain from saying that.

nhs money will shortly be spent on faith healers, as part of the personalised budgets scheme. so we're way ahead.

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but personalised budget sounds OK. I am not sure how it's supposed to work but, say, you come with a given set of afflictions, the NHS tells you - OK, for that kind of stuff, we allocate £50k, go and spend it as you wish is not necessarily bad.

As long as you never ever get any extra £ for the same set of affliction. Which i think is going to be a bitch to actually implement.

Zan? Any precision on how this is supposed to work?

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Quote:

OK, for that kind of stuff, we allocate £50k, go and spend it as you wish is not necessarily bad.

What? So everyone in the US subscribes to the New England Journal of Medicine every week?

Of course they do, and choose their health care treatment accordingly.

Excellent public policy move. Additionally, unemployment may be ameliorated by increased demand for grave diggers.

Well, it doesn't mean that doctors suddenly disappear - if people choose to actually listen to the advice given by the pros, that's their choice.

TBH, if there was not implementation issues (which i suspect are going to be monstrous), i think this policy is nice for the feeling of freedom it gives but, in practice, i don't think too many people really choose to NOT listen to their doctors.

Health is an area where our own lack of knowledge is very very clear. We know we don't know... and thus tend to follow professional advice. I suspect at least.

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