Anabaptist Healthcare?

Christian ethics and theology with an Anabaptist perspective
MaxPC
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

Post by MaxPC »

Judas Maccabeus wrote:
MaxPC wrote:For the Anabaptists who are currently in an active Anabaptist fellowship:

How do you handle medical expenses?
Insurance?
Anabaptist health exchange?
Other?
Since we are urban, many, and perhaps most get insurance through their work. There is a fund set aside for emergencies and it is maintained by a committee.

J.M.
The situation we're examining presently is creating a means for funding medical care without violating our closely held beliefs, especially in those situations where the Church or religious order provide it for for themselves.

Last year, the previous gov. administration tried to force nuns to carry artificial birth control and abortion coverage. The Supreme Court sided with the nuns and other religious entities, declaring they were exempt due to their closely held tenets of faith.

So now we hope to formulate a solution from a successful model.
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Max (Plain Catholic)
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RZehr
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

Post by RZehr »

Our church has a mix - some people have health insurance through work, a few may buy insurance, some are social security exempt (no insurance).
Most people pay for their own medical expenses if they can afford it. If you can't afford it, the deacons will determine how much the church will pay and how much you will pay. I think they have kind of a rough formula or rule of thumb that they follow. The church usually does help pay for many births and major surgeries.
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MaxPC
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

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RZehr wrote:Our church has a mix - some people have health insurance through work, a few may buy insurance, some are social security exempt (no insurance).
Most people pay for their own medical expenses if they can afford it. If you can't afford it, the deacons will determine how much the church will pay and how much you will pay. I think they have kind of a rough formula or rule of thumb that they follow. The church usually does help pay for many births and major surgeries.
Thank you, RZehr. I suppose the formula is contingent on several factors too? I can see this working well if closely monitored.
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Max (Plain Catholic)
Mt 24:35
Proverbs 18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind.
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God
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Josh
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

Post by Josh »

Josh wrote:
MaxPC wrote:I'm appreciating the input. It gives me some ideas to share. We are looking at creating a similar emergency fund and reworking how we are going to be able to offer insurance without being forced by the government to fund abortions or artificial birth control which is against our teachings.
A good place to start would be an existing Catholic health sharing ministry, which partners with Samaritan's Ministries so that they can pool their administrative and financial resources with both Catholic and non-Catholic Christians.

Regardless, it is illegal to offer insurance that does not meet government regulations. That's why the above is a health care sharing ministry, not insurance. Nonetheless, insurance does not have to provide birth control or abortions if doing so would violate the consciences of the payors, as found in Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Burwell.

In any case, Catholics run some of the biggest healthcare networks in the world, such as Ohio's 4th largest employer, Mercy Health Partners, which is a public juridic person entirely under the control of the Vatican, with input from various members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Other denominations run large healthcare networks as well, such as the West Ohio United Methodist Conference's OhioHealth system and the Seventh-Day Adventists' Florida Adventist Health System (including major insurers like Health First), just to name a few.

Despite the Catholic tradition of excellence and their sheer size when it comes to providing healthcare, if you really want to hear the Mennonite view of things, you could contact Mennonite Health Service, which provides services to various Anabaptist-affiliated healthcare organisations.

References: I worked in professional services for health insurance payor systems and care management software, and later I worked in software development for healthcare equipment asset management, including for some of the above Catholic organisations.
Max,

What's your opinion of the Catholic health sharing ministries, insurers, and providers above?
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Judas Maccabeus
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

Post by Judas Maccabeus »

MaxPC wrote:
Judas Maccabeus wrote:
MaxPC wrote:For the Anabaptists who are currently in an active Anabaptist fellowship:

How do you handle medical expenses?
Insurance?
Anabaptist health exchange?
Other?
Since we are urban, many, and perhaps most get insurance through their work. There is a fund set aside for emergencies and it is maintained by a committee.

J.M.
The situation we're examining presently is creating a means for funding medical care without violating our closely held beliefs, especially in those situations where the Church or religious order provide it for for themselves.

Last year, the previous gov. administration tried to force nuns to carry artificial birth control and abortion coverage. The Supreme Court sided with the nuns and other religious entities, declaring they were exempt due to their closely held tenets of faith.

So now we hope to formulate a solution from a successful model.
Didn't the conestoga wood products case solve that. The plaintiff of record was a conservative mennonite, I know people who know him.

J.M.
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Josh
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

Post by Josh »

Christian health sharing ministries are exempt from insurance regulations and always have been. And in any case, the Catholic one above is gigantic. If it were an insurer it'd be a big one.

As far as care for needy people goes, the Catholic groups in my area have charity assistance for needy people in general, and hospitals and clinics in particular provide financial assistance including low or no cost care. I'm puzzled at the idea of any Catholic parish that isn't connected to providing charity health care. It's one of the things Catholics are well known for and do best.
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Judas Maccabeus
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

Post by Judas Maccabeus »

Josh wrote:Christian health sharing ministries are exempt from insurance regulations and always have been. And in any case, the Catholic one above is gigantic. If it were an insurer it'd be a big one.

As far as care for needy people goes, the Catholic groups in my area have charity assistance for needy people in general, and hospitals and clinics in particular provide financial assistance including low or no cost care. I'm puzzled at the idea of any Catholic parish that isn't connected to providing charity health care. It's one of the things Catholics are well known for and do best.
Yeah, when I worked at a hospital under CHI (Catholic health initiatives) I could always get an uninsured patient the care they needed, even if it was expensive. They never asked what religion the person was.

The hospital was of Franciscan heritage.

J.M.
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MaxPC
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

Post by MaxPC »

Judas Maccabeus wrote: Didn't the conestoga wood products case solve that. The plaintiff of record was a conservative mennonite, I know people who know him.
J.M.
I know there were several cases before the Supreme Court concerning the violation of religious tenets by Obamacare. We were primarily concerned about the nuns of course so I m not sure how the other cases were decided.

Nuns are vowed to being celibate and to force them to carry reproductive and termination coverage is simply ludicrous. In the case of abortion and birth control, it's considered discrimination. SCOTUS ruled in favor of the nuns., much to our relief. These sisters care for those who are poor and elderly and who have no one else.

In the case of the remaining Catholic hospitals (many have closed their doors), there is a case pending before SCOTUS in which Obamacare insists that the Catholic as well as the other hospitals affiliated with a church will have to provide abortion services. If the hospital is truly Catholic or belongs to a faith family, they refuse do abortions because it's considered murder. All of these medical ministries are primarily located in urban areas. Our next step is to create smaller scaled medical financial assistance for the small towns and rural communities which are terribly underserved.
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Max (Plain Catholic)
Mt 24:35
Proverbs 18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind.
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God
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Josh
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

Post by Josh »

The nuns and lay religious sisters I've had the pleasure of knowing were very much in favour of universal health care coverage for birth control, incidentally. (At the time, so was I.)
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Josh
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Re: Anabaptist Healthcare?

Post by Josh »

In the case of the remaining Catholic hospitals (many have closed their doors)
What? Catholic hospitals remain the largest networks in the nation. As I pointed out earlier, Catholic Health Partners (now Mercy Health) is one of the largest employers in Ohio.
there is a case pending before SCOTUS in which Obamacare insists that the Catholic as well as the other hospitals affiliated with a church will have to provide abortion services.
What case is this? The ACA does not mandate abortion services. Quite the contrary, which had abortion advocates upset about it:
Abortion is basic health care and therefore should be covered by health insurance. However, in passing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Congress decided against guaranteeing coverage of this basic health service, and established rules unique to abortion coverage. Under the ACA, an issuer opting to cover abortion care in marketplace plans must follow particular administrative requirements to ensure that no federal funds go toward abortion. Moreover, states retain the option to ban abortion coverage in marketplace plans outright, and half of states have already done so.
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