Prayer Is NOT A Medical Procedure

Those who read this blog regularly will know that I am in favor of substantial health care reform -- especially the creation of an option for public health insurance. But that does not mean I am in favor of shelling out taxpayer funds (or forcing private insurance companies to pay) for any treatment that has not been scientifically proven to have medical benefit.

It will be expensive enough to pay to cover every American with decent health insurance that will pay for medically necessary treatment prescribed by a doctor. To pile on top of that, paying for esoteric and unproven treatments such as Reiki therapy, prayer intercession, aroma therapy, crystal therapy, homeopathy, chiropractors and many other "woo-woo" therapies, is just plain silly and will push up the price of insurance and medical care without any corresponding patient benefit.

But believe it or not, we have United States senators who believe public and private insurance should have to pay for this kind of "treatment". Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has inserted into the senate health care bill a provision that would "require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses."

But I'm not blaming Republicans for this ridiculous nonsense. No, this is bipartisan foolishness. The provision is also supported by Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts). It should be noted that the headquarters of the Christian Scientist sect is located in Massachusetts. Could he be trading insurance dollars for votes?

Frankly, I don't care whether Christian Scientists, or anyone else, want to rely solely on prayer instead of medicine (as long as they don't cause the deaths of children by refusing to get medically necessary treatment). An adult has the right to deny medical treatment and pray to whatever god that like for healing.

They can pray to whatever invisible sky fairy they want to, just as long as they don't ask you or I to pay for it with tax dollars or higher insurance premiums because the insurance company was required to pay for it. Prayer is a religious exercise, and is NOT a medical treatment.

Furthermore, because of this country's religious freedom, it one religious sect is getting paid for praying for the sick then other religions have the same right to be paid for praying for the sick. Pretty soon we'd be paying for voodoo rituals, Wiccan spells and witch doctor visits -- because our government cannot favor any one religion over another.

This is a slippery slope that will result in the wasting of taxpayer dollars and raising of premiums for private insurance companies -- and this is totally unnecessary. Let your Congress men and women know that insurance, whether public or private, should not be forced to pay for prayer -- or any other treatment that has not been scientifically proven to be an effective treatment.

In America, people have the right to any religious belief (or no religious belief) they wish, but they do not have the right to ask other Americans to pay for those beliefs.