Far r+t hates it; far left hates it: the faith-based healthcare co-ops option, or co-ops option of any kind.

Faith-based healthcare

co-ops option,

please!



For a hardnosed political realist (no conservative, he) Steven Pearlstein hardly gives us time to pause to breathe as he draws us directly back into nuits-and-bolts thinking about govt-option off the table, co-op option on the table. It's Time to Give Up On the Public Option (Aug19,2k9). Click on the title of this blog entry, at the top to read the Pearlstein column in WaPo.

He does not talk about frivolous medical lawsuits against doctors, hospitals, and everyone else.

Nor does Pearlstein talk about portability, where your paid-up insurance premiums and benefits accruing to you over the years, all go with you when you leave one employer perhaps for another, where in the second instance too your benefits remain portable should you leave. Insurers shoudn't be able to hold you captive.

Nor does the journalist face the elephant in the room in regard to the co-ops option: the faith-based co-ops or fraternal benefit societies, exist, are outstandingly assetized in some cases, and often a good arrangement for the Lutherans or Christians who are members-owners of the faith-based co-ops of which I have any knowledge, but nevertheless offer policies and other benefits to those who do not belong to the particular faith sponsoring the agency of insurance (life insurance at present, as far as I know).

In anycase, whatever his point of view and whatever essentials he hasn't included in his empirical overview, Steven Pearlstein stands in the first ranks of journalists today, certainly on healthcare.

"Enough already with the public option!," as Pearlstein says.



Here's a 1995 bibliography that, among other things, helps me track some reformational medical thinkers. The original author is Denis Haack via Ransom Fellowship 1995:

Part I: The Practice of Medicine

“The Christian Stake in Bioethics: The State of the Question” by Nigel Cameron, Ph.D. (Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL).

“The Medical Profession in Modern Society: The Importance of Defining Limits” by H. Jochemsen, Ph.D. (Lindeboom Instituut, Ede, Holland), S. Strijbos, Ph.D. (Free University, Amsterdam), & J. Hoogland, Ph.D. (Erasmus University, Amsterdam). All of these gentlemen are reformational philosophers.

“Daniel versus Saul: Toward a Distinctly Christian Biomedical Ethics” by Loreen Herwalt, M.D. (University of Iowa Hospital, Iowa City, IA).

“Physician Values and Value Neutrality” by John Peppin, D.O. (University of Osteopathic Medicine & Health Sciences, Des Moines, IA).

“Ethical Problems in the Clinical Study of Religion and Health” by David Larson, M.D. & Mary Greenwold (National Institute for Healthcare Research, Washington, DC).

“The Profession at the Fault Line: The Ethics of Physician Income” by David Schiedermayer, M.D. (Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI).

Part II: The Ethical Underpinnings of Medicine

“Luther’s ‘Freedom of a Christian’ and a Patient’s Autonomy” by Allen Verhey, Ph.D. (Hope College, Holland, MI). Dr Verhey is friendly to reformational philosophy and an ethics of medicine sharing some of its key ins+ts.

“Saying the Unsaid: Quality of Life Criteria in a Sanctity of Life Position” by Jerome Wernow, Ph.D. (University of Louvain, Belgium).

“Bioethics in the Shadow of Nietzsche” by Stephen Williams, Ph.D. (Union Theological College, Belfast, N. Ireland)

“Bioethics and the Church” by C. Ben Mitchell, M.Div. (Southern Baptist Convention, Nashville, TN).

“Christian and Secular Decision-Making in Clinical Ethics” by Robert Orr, M.D. (Loma Linda University Medical Center, Loma Linda, CA). An important thawt-provoker on the worldiew difference in decision-making.

“Doing Bioethics: Christian Ethics, Pastoral Care and Public Policy” by Dennis Hollinger, Ph.D. (Washington Community Fellowship, Washington, DC).

Part III: The Evolving Abortion Crisis

“Post-Abortion Syndrome: Fact or Fiction” by Stephanie Smith, Ph.D. (Christian Action Research and Education, London, England).

“Abortifacient Vaccines: Technological Update and Christian Appraisal” by Lawrence Roberge, M.S. (Biotechnology Consultant).

“From Personhood to Bodily Autonomy: The Shifting Focus in the Abortion Debate” by Francis Beckwith, Ph.D. (University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV).

“The Bible and Abortion: What of the ‘Image of God’?” by Dónal Mathúna, Ph.D. (Mt Carmel College of Nursing, Columbus, OH).

“Abortion: Responsibility and Moral Betrayal” by Christine Pohl, Ph.D. (Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY).

Part IV: The Expanding Bioethics Agenda

“Pregnancy for Profit?: Legal and Moral Perspectives on Commercial Surrogate Motherhood” by Scott Rae, Ph.D. (Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, CA).

“Clones, Chimeras, and the Image of God: Lessons from Barthian Bioethics” by R. Geoffrey Brown, Ph.D. (Fletcher Hills Presbyterian Church, El Cajon, CA).

“Advance Directives: The Case for Greater Dialogue” by Peter Jaggard, M.D. (Evanston Hospital, Evanston, IL).

“The ‘Right to Die’ in the Light of Contemporary Rights-Rhetoric” by J. Daryl Charles, Ph.D. (Prison Fellowship, Reston, VA).

“Until Death Shall be No More: Christian Care for the Dying” by Greg Rutecki, M.D. (NE Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Canton, OH)

“Rationing and Health Care Reform” by John Kilmer, Ph.D. (The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, Bannockburn, IL).

Book Reviewed

Bioethics and the Future of Medicine: A Christian Appraisal edited by John F. Kilmer, Nigel M. De S. Cameron, and David Schiedermayer (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans; 1995) 303 pp. + index.