Many thanks, c2w. I really had begun to wonder if the Scielons had gotten their hooks into Harkin. although I'm not sure that the end results of what Harkin is up to won't benefit the Scielons, too, in the end.
Remember that Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) that Harkin was instrumental in establishing, attaching it to NIH? Well, apparently he's now criticizing it because the studies it conducted are not producing the results he wants (See link for entire article and embedded links):
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=2196Every so often, as the health care reform initiative spearheaded by the Obama Administration wends its way through Congress (or, more precisely, wend their ways through Congress, given that there are multiple bills coming from multiple committees in both Houses), I’ve warned about various chicanery from woo-friendly legislators trying to legitimize by legislation where they’ve failed by science various “alternative” medicine practices. This began much earlier this year, when I pointed out how Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) invited the Four Horsemen of the Woo-pocalypse to the Senate to testify. These included Dr. Andy Weil, Director, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona, Vail, AZ; Dr. Dean Ornish, Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Sausalito, CA; Dr. Mark Hyman, Founder and Medical Director, The UltraWellness Center, Lenox, MA; Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, Director, Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY. This occurred after Harkin had famously complained about the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the Center in the NIH that he, more than anyone else, had created, because it had not validated enough quackery. (Yes, I know he didn’t use those words, but that was what he had done.) Most recently, Harkin tried to insert language that would mandate that the government and health insurers pay for quackery, as long as it was from licensed practitioners. Given that some states license naturopaths and even “homeopathic physicians,” such an amendment, if it stayed in place, would open the way for paying for all manner of nonscientific quackery.
However, there is another bit of chicanery that legislators are pulling, this time with the Senate version of the bill, that I have been made aware of by Rita Swan of CHILD and fellow SBM blogger Kimball Atwood. This time, the threat is religious, with Senators trying to insert measures into the health care reform initiatives that will pay for “religious” treatments, such as Christian Science prayer. Indeed, one of these, S.1679, entitled Affordable Health Choices Act requires the government or private party insurers to pay for faith-based therapies:
SEC. 3103. PROGRAM DESIGN.
(D) The essential benefits provided for in subparagraph (A) shall include a requirement that there be non-discrimination in health care in a manner that, with respect to an individual who is eligible for medical or surgical care under a qualified health plan offered through a Gateway, prohibits the Administrator of the Gateway, or a qualified health plan offered through the Gateway, from denying such individual benefits for religious or spiritual health care, except that such religious or spiritual health care shall be an expense eligible for deduction as a medical care expense as determined by Internal Revenue Service Rulings interpreting section 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as of January 1, 2009.
What this paragraph appears to mean is that under this bill, if it passes with this provision intact, health care insurers, be they private or government, would be required to pay for religion-based treatments, such as Christian Science “practitioners” for their health care “services.” More specifically, the bill emphasizes nondescrimination. I will be honest with you here. I’m not entirely sure if that means only that the bill requires that insurers do not discriminate against paying for religious woo, such as Christian Science prayer “treatments” or, as Kimball fears, that such language might reasonably be construed to mean that such fees paid to religious “healers” would have to be comparable to those paid to legitimate practitioners. One thing that’s truly ridiculous is that the IRS already allows “medical deductions” for Christian Science prayer charges and a bunch of other woo. Indeed, here is what the IRS has to say about the subject:
If you itemize your deductions on Form 1040, Schedule A (PDF), you may be able to deduct expenses you paid that year for medical care (including dental) for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. A deduction is allowed only for expenses paid for the prevention or alleviation of a physical or mental defect or illness. Medical care expenses include payments for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or treatment affecting any structure or function of the body. The cost of drugs is deductible only for drugs that require a prescription, except for insulin.
Medical expenses include fees paid to doctors, dentists, surgeons, chiropractors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and Christian Science practitioners. Also included are payments for hospital services, qualified long-term care services, nursing services, and laboratory fees. Payments for acupuncture treatments or inpatient treatment at a center for alcohol or drug addiction are also deductible medical expenses.
In other words, this passage, if allowed to stand, would mandate that insurers pay for faith healing by Christian Scientists. Indeed, as the Senate tries to merge Harkin’s bill with the bill that emerged from the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), an amendment has been promoted by, of all people, the odd couple of Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), that says mandates in essence the very same “nondiscrimination” as the passage above using almost identical language (scroll down to Amendment C-14, also known as the Kerry/Hatch Amendment). At first glance, one might wonder why on earth Senator Kerry would support such nonsense, which seems more suited to conservative Christians. However, the Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in Boston and is based in Massachusetts; so maybe it’s not so strange after all. Indeed, maybe it’s stranger that Orrin Hatch, a Mormon, would be supporting such an Amendment.
But it’s not just the Senate, unfortunately. There is very similar language in House bill HR3200, sponsored by Representative John Dingell (D-MI):
Section 125. PROHIBITION OF DISCRIMINATION IN HEALTH CARE SERVICES BASED ON RELIGIOUS OR SPIRITUAL CONTENT.
Neither the Commissioner nor any health insurance issuer offering health insurance coverage through the Exchange shall discriminate in approving or covering a health care service on the basis of its religious or spiritual content if expenditures for such a health care service are allowable as a deduction under 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as in effect on January 1, 2009..........
