Religions > Atheism > Bush's new way to sneak religion into government: Via health care
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"George Washington Hayduke" |
| Date: |
11 Oct 2004 09:42:43 PM |
| Object: |
Bush's new way to sneak religion into government: Via health care |
From The Detroit News, 10/10/04:
http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0410/10/b01-298475.htm
Bush's new way to sneak religion into government: Via health care
By Laura Berman / The Detroit News
Dr. Jeff Stieve is the only doctor in Escanaba who will perform tubal
ligations or insert IUDs for birth control.
He delivers services that, as a matter of faith and theology, the sole
hospital in town will not.
Now, OSF Health Care, which operates St. Francis Hospital in Escanaba
and four Roman Catholic hospitals in Illinois, has been chosen by the
Bush administration to provide a "faith-based" health plan for federal
employees.
Morals are now mixing with medicine in the health plan cafeteria.
The Catholic plan -- offered next month to Illinois federal workers
only -- costs less because it will not cover contraception, artificial
insemination, sterilization procedures or abortions under any
circumstances.
OSF Health can’t offer the same plan to Illinois state workers because
Illinois is one of 22 states that require all insurers to cover
contraception.
(Michigan, which has gone medieval on reproductive health issues, does
not.)
But watch out:
If faith-based medical insurance takes off -- and the Bush
administration stays in office -- the feds may soon be offering such
plans to the Detroit area’s 14,000 federal employees.
So what?
Well, the new Catholic plan, described as "groundbreaking" by the New
York Times, is a new way for the government to insinuate religious
differences into government.
Suddenly, the government is enabling hospitals to offer less care
based on religious considerations, not only medical ones.
To Stieve, a Dearborn native who delivers babies and "ties tubes" in
the Upper Peninsula, news of Catholic health insurance confirms a
trend.
"The line is getting more blurred between the science of medicine and
the religious beliefs of hospitals and doctors," says Stieve.
Valerie Myers, a public health professor at the University of
Michigan, who describes herself as "a proponent of faith-based
initiatives" questions the wisdom of mixing politics, religion and
medicine in one package.
"It makes it easy for critics of faith-based programs to say they
promote a faith-based perspective," she points out.
Having already spent more than $1 billion on faith-based social
programs, the Bush administration is exploring new frontiers.
The Catholic health plan -- which combines a high deductible with a
health savings plan -- panders to customers on the basis of religion,
while driving down costs for the faithful.
It’s ominously original.
"I think what they’ve learned in Washington is that, if they take
these initiatives one at a time, nobody pays attention, and you can
eliminate debate," says Peter Jacobson, a former U.S. government
official and U-M professor who specializes in law and public health.
The government could have offered a cost-cutting plan without
reproductive services.
Instead, it has chosen to market a faith-based plan that "follows the
tenets of the Catholic Church," as it’s described by Abby Block, an
official at the Office of Personnel Management, which administers the
government’s health care plan to employees.
If Catholic-brand insurance works, we will surely be able to sample
other faith-based flavors that heal patients and -- or -- woo voters.
+--+
| Hezbollah endorses George W. Bush: http://www.hezbollah.ws/
| 18. You think loading a dishwasher means getting your wife drunk.
+--+
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| User: "Crazyalec" |
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| Title: Re: Bush's new way to sneak religion into government: Via health care |
12 Oct 2004 03:55:48 AM |
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(George Washington Hayduke) wrote in message news:<10mmh91ptfhpo1b@corp.supernews.com>...
"The line is getting more blurred between the science of medicine and
the religious beliefs of hospitals and doctors," says Stieve.
How can you call religious scam a belief? Would you call mafia a belief?
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| User: "George Washington Hayduke" |
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| Title: Re: Bush's new way to sneak religion into government: Via health care |
12 Oct 2004 09:01:12 PM |
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(Crazyalec) wrote:
Hayduke@AWOLBush.com (George Washington Hayduke) wrote in message news:<10mmh91ptfhpo1b@corp.supernews.com>...
"The line is getting more blurred between the science of medicine and
the religious beliefs of hospitals and doctors," says Stieve.
How can you call religious scam a belief? Would you call mafia a belief?
}:-} Scientology is organized crime the equal to the Italian Mafias
yet they hide -- at times successfully -- behind the banner of religion.
When they murdered Lisa McPherson, they claimed they had the right to
kill her because Florida passed the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act."
+--+
| Hezbollah endorses George W. Bush: http://www.hezbollah.ws/
| 18. You think loading a dishwasher means getting your wife drunk.
+--+
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| User: "Crazyalec" |
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| Title: Re: Bush's new way to sneak religion into government: Via health care |
14 Oct 2004 03:27:41 PM |
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(George Washington Hayduke) wrote in message news:<10mp375od5hr5f3@corp.supernews.com>...
oleka2000@yahoo.com (Crazyalec) wrote:
(George Washington Hayduke) wrote in message news:<10mmh91ptfhpo1b@corp.supernews.com>...
"The line is getting more blurred between the science of medicine and
the religious beliefs of hospitals and doctors," says Stieve.
How can you call religious scam a belief? Would you call mafia a belief?
}:-} Scientology is organized crime the equal to the Italian Mafias
yet they hide -- at times successfully -- behind the banner of religion.
What da ***** are you talking about?
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