{"id":1821,"date":"2009-11-24T18:21:21","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T18:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned.php"},"modified":"2009-11-24T18:21:21","modified_gmt":"2009-11-24T18:21:21","slug":"christian-scientists-concerned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned","title":{"rendered":"Christian Scientists Concerned About Health Care Provisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RNS) Atheists are celebrating and Christian Scientists are worried now that a provision requiring private medical insurers to reimburse for “religious or spiritual health care” has not been included in the Senate’s health care reform bill.
\nIn a news release headlined “Victory!”, the Freedom From Religion Foundation said the deleted language “would have mandated payment to Christian Scientist practitioners for `faith-healing’ expenses.” The Madison, Wis.-based foundation called it a “great victory for the separation of church and state and a deserved defeat for the Christian Science lobby.”
\nThe Boston-based Church of Christ, Scientist, which teaches its followers to rely on prayer rather than medicine for healing, sees it as a matter of choice.
\n“President Obama said those happy with their current health care should be allowed to stay with it. We feel it is important that everyone have access to spiritual care,” said Phil Davis, who manages media and legislative affairs for the church worldwide.
\nThe church maintains a three-person office in Washington, D.C., and is working to convince legislators to consider amendments to the health care bill, he said. The process is not yet over, Davis cautioned, noting that if the Senate passes its version of the bill, it would need to be reconciled with the one passed by the House.
\nIt’s not a question of church-state separation, Davis said. “The framers of the Constitution wanted a balance. We have no desire to see an establishment of one religion over another, but we want to be sure of the free exercise of religion,” he said.
\nFour insurers now cover spiritual care, and Medicare reimburses for physical care provided by a Christian Science nurse, he said. The current health reform legislation, as it now stands, “would have a chilling effect on the public’s ability to be covered for spiritual care,” Davis said.
\nSolange De Santis
\nReligion News Service
\nCopyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RNS) Atheists are celebrating and Christian Scientists are worried now that a provision requiring private medical insurers to reimburse for “religious or spiritual health care” has not been included in the Senate’s health care reform bill. In a news release headlined “Victory!”, the Freedom From Religion Foundation said the deleted language “would have mandated payment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian Scientists Concerned About Health Care Provisions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Scientists Concerned About Health Care Provisions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(RNS) Atheists are celebrating and Christian Scientists are worried now that a provision requiring private medical insurers to reimburse for “religious or spiritual health care” has not been included in the Senate’s health care reform bill. In a news release headlined “Victory!”, the Freedom From Religion Foundation said the deleted language “would have mandated payment…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-24T18:21:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christian Scientists Concerned About Health Care Provisions","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Christian Scientists Concerned About Health Care Provisions","og_description":"(RNS) Atheists are celebrating and Christian Scientists are worried now that a provision requiring private medical insurers to reimburse for “religious or spiritual health care” has not been included in the Senate’s health care reform bill. In a news release headlined “Victory!”, the Freedom From Religion Foundation said the deleted language “would have mandated payment…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2009-11-24T18:21:21+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned","name":"Christian Scientists Concerned About Health Care Provisions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-11-24T18:21:21+00:00","dateModified":"2009-11-24T18:21:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/11\/christian-scientists-concerned#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Christian Scientists Concerned About Health Care Provisions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}