The calls come in at all hours: patients reporting broken bones, violent coughs, deep depression.
Prue Lewis listens as they explain their symptoms. Then Lewis -- a thin, frail-looking woman from Columbia Heights -- simply says, "I'll go to work right away." She hangs up, organizes her thoughts and begins treating her clients' ailments the best way she knows how: She prays.
This is health care in the world of Christian Science, where the sick eschew conventional medicine and turn to God for healing. Christian Scientists call it "spiritual health care," and it is a practice they are battling to insert into the health-care legislation being hammered out in Congress.
I'm sure it's going into the bill, because the issue isn't getting people health care insurance who have none. The issue is how you can get a slice of the big government program.
I'm not sure what sort of qualifications one must have to be a religious fraud, stealing money from people. I suspect that we could just create a database of people "treated", open a call center, and start billing the government. That wouldn't be hard at all to do.
So ya.. Christianity is a fraud.. but it's big business, so might as well cash in if you can.
No comments:
Post a Comment