Entries tagged with “insurance” from Trans-cendental

The free market works best, right? Supply and demand set the correct prices for goods and services. The consumer chooses the best options and thereby makes the best supplier successful.

This actually works for a lot of things - even for health care providers. For example: consumers will continue to use providers who offer a good ratio of quality care vs price. If the price goes too high, consumers will choose a cheaper provider. If the quality of care goes too low, consumers will choose a better provider.

Likewise, providers have an incentive to keep consumers (patients). It doesn't matter whether the patient sees the physician annually for a checkup, or weekly for chemotherapy: it is profitable to retain the patients you have and, when possible, add new ones.

Where this doesn't work is with insurance.

Another entry in health - a day late.

So children get the brush-off. I suppose that makes sense: State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) protects people who won't be able to vote for a few years anyway, so it's not much of a constituency yet. But, seeing as George W. Bush won't be running for re-election, why would he care? What's the point of the veto?

I understand the fear: middle-class parents might forgo buying their own insurance and enroll in SCHIP. But we're not talking about parents here, we're talking about children. Lower-middle-class parents often have to choose between rent, food, transportation, school books & supplies, and health care.

Let's not make choices that punish the innocent for the perceived sins of their parents. Let's not deny health care for children because of choices we fear their parents will make. Instead, let our grace extend to these little ones, ensuring that they can grow up healthy and have a chance at a better life than their parents may have had.

Who knows? Perhaps they will become healthy - and wealthy - enough to care for their then-aging parents, decreasing the burden on us all.


References:

• http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3151
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14947772&ft=1&f=3

    A major insurance company that sought out business from a local United Church of Christ congregation in Michigan has subsequently refused to even provide a quote for coverage when it learned the church's denomination supported same-gender marriage equality and the ordination of gay clergy. - United Church of Christ

    West Adrian UCC was approached by Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company to change their insurance. When West Adrian consented to a quote, the insurance company said that the denominations "support" for gay clergy and same-sex marriage made the church too high a risk, and refused to offer a quote.

    Aside from the fact that the insurance agent approached the church without knowing about the denomination's history, which shows a lack of basic research, there are a number of other problems with the company's assumptions.

     Although General Synod 25, the semi-annual meeting held in 2005, approved a resolution supporting same-sex marriage, that action only encourages individual congregations to consider such support. General Synod resolutions do not control congregations, and only "speak to, not for" the United Church of Christ. Likewise, although individual UCC associations (local bodies that organize a small number, usually some 20-100, congregations) may ordain gay clergy, the individual congregations determine who they will call and are free to choose not to accept gay clergy.

     And the UCC "Open and Affirming" (OnA) status is also a local choice. West Adrian UCC had not voted to be OnA. It is ironic that West Adrian may be precisely the type of church Brotherhood Mutual wanted to insure.

     Of course, businesses are free to decline a contract based on the risk involved. Yet this congregation was judged not on its claims history, not on its property, not on its members, and not on its ideology - but on the perceived risk by being a congregation associated with a denomination in which some have chosen to support gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons.

     In Matthew 5:11, Jesus says, "Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." And so it is with this congregation. May they, and we, see the blessings of being accused of love.