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A. Bringing Believers Together Medi-Share is a program of Christian Care Ministry, Inc., a Florida not for profit corporation that is recognized as tax exempt under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) (“Christian Care Ministry” or “CCM”). Medi-Share brings believers together to share the blessings God has bestowed on them according to the example of Scripture and the early Christian Church. CCM matches a Member's Eligible Medical Bill(s) (as defined in Section II.) with Members who have volunteered, in faith, to share in the payment of medical bills through the biblical concept of Christian mutual sharing. These Guidelines specify the medical expenses that will be published for sharing to Members and explain how sharing may be accomplished on behalf of a Member in need. Although church plans differ, their basic premise is simple: Members send a monthly check -- a "share" -- ranging from $200 to $400, either to the plan or directly to those the plan designates with "needs," as medical bills are known. They also agree to send cards and letters or to pray for those in need; in some cases the names and addresses of those in need, along with a brief description of their medical problems, are published in a monthly newsletter. No Guarantees While Medi-Share has many of the characteristics of insurance -- including annual deductibles, a medical advisory board, the practice of negotiating discounts from hospitals and a requirement that non-emergency treatment be approved -- Reinhold insists it is not insurance and therefore is exempt from state regulation. Medi-Share, he said, is a voluntary arrangement between like-minded people to share medical expenses according to rules they devise, in fulfillment of the New Testament exhortation that Christians should bear each other's burdens. "There are no reserves and there is no guarantee a need will be paid," Reinhold said. Insurance, he added, requires a contractual transfer of risk in exchange for payment. One way Medi-Share controls costs is by requiring its members to seek approval by telephone before non-emergency treatment, or pay $250 to the plan. Callers are routed to a medical panel headed by John E. Evans, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Vicksburg, Miss., who also sits on Medi-Share's 55-member board of overseers. "Members are asked to give us the information we need to determine whether care will be covered, Evans said. The goal, he said, is to steer subscribers to the most appropriate treatments. In some cases Evans's suggestions, published in Medi-Share newsletters, have been unconventional and do not include medications or surgery. Recently he suggested that Larry McFall, a middle-aged runner with a torn meniscus, do stretching exercises to avoid surgery recommended by an orthopedic surgeon. McFall wrote that the treatment worked and noted that the advice "saved the $6,000 cost of my surgery and physical therapy" and spared him "possible infection and other side effects of surgery." One of my biggest concerns was that I would be facing a huge medical bill and that the members would just decide not to “share” with me to cover it. After talking to the Medi-Share representative, it sounds like that isn’t much of a concern if you follow the rules. She explained that in the last 16 years every eligible need has been covered. But “eligible” is the key word here. For example, she told me a story of a member who was in a bad car accident requiring lots of medical work, but since the person was intoxicated when they got into the accident, the expense was not covered by Medi-Share. On one hand I think you should give the guy a break, but at the same time it is the strict rules and policies that make the program work. The whole point is that by living a Biblical lifestyle you will be healthier, therefore have fewer medical expenses. It seems like the program is perfect for healthy Christians who are committed to the Biblical lifestyle. If you already have many health conditions or are prone to lapses into substance abuse, it probably wouldn’t be worth it. Labels: health care BOISE, Idaho — A New York City resident plans a long-distance run as a Democrat for the Idaho U.S. Senate seat now held by Mike Crapo, a Republican. William Bryk, who is 54, hasn't raised a nickel for the May 2010 primary. The Spokesman-Review reported he also hasn't been to Idaho in his life, but says he was prompted to run because Crapo faced only a write-in challenger in 2004. Bryk says he didn't want to let that happen again in 2010. Election law requires Idaho candidates to be residents of the state only by the day of the general election; Bryk says he'll move to Idaho if he wins the Democratic nomination. Labels: Idaho politics This astonishing revelation surfaced quite casually last weekend in a newspaper article by one Andrew Neather. He turns out to have been a speech writer for Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett. And it was he who wrote a landmark speech in September 2000 by the then immigration minister, Barbara Roche, that called for a loosening of immigration controls. But the true scope and purpose of this new policy was actively concealed. In its 1997 election manifesto, Labour promised 'firm control over immigration' and in 2005 it promised a 'crackdown on abuse'. In 2001, its manifesto merely said that the immigration rules needed to reflect changes to the economy to meet skills shortages. But all this concealed a monumental shift of policy. For Neather wrote that until 'at least February last year', when a new points-based system was introduced to limit foreign workers in response to increasing uproar, the purpose of the policy Roche ushered in was to open up the UK to mass immigration. This has been achieved. Some 2.3million migrants have been added to the population since 2001. Since 1997, the number of work permits has quadrupled to 120,000 a year. It was done to destroy for ever what it means to be culturally British and to put another 'multicultural' identity in its place. And it was done without telling or asking the British people whether they wanted their country and their culture to be transformed in this way. Spitefully, one motivation by Labour ministers was 'to rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date'. Labels: immigration COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- When it comes to the chance of surviving cancer in Europe, France and Austria are the best places to be, according to new research that tracks cancer survival patterns across the region. The analysis, to be presented today at the close of a European Cancer Conference, involved statistics on 42 types of cancer in 1.8 million adults and 24,000 children from 22 countries in Europe. The largest international cancer survival study to date, it found the chances of surviving for at least five years after being diagnosed with cancer ranged from a low of 25.2 percent for men in Poland to 57.9 percent for women in France. Regionally, Scandinavia came out best and Eastern Europe worst. That compares with a survival rate of 62 percent for men and 63.5 percent for women in the United States. Comparable statistics for other areas of the world were not immediately available. The discouraging conclusion for European R&D is backed up by Kenneth Kaitin, Director of the Boston-based Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, which released a study on drug approval times and new drug availability in Europe and the US earlier this year. He says pharmaceutical companies are increasingly submitting their new drug applications in the US long before they apply in Europe — and as a direct result, they are focusing their R&D efforts in the US too. Of the 71 drugs receiving marketing clearance both in the European Union and the US between 2000 and 2005, 73% (that is, 52 drugs) received approval first from the US FDA (Fig. 1). On average, the FDA approval came 1 year ahead of clearance by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). ... The advantage of the US is almost wholly down to its lack of price controls, says Kaitin. "Investors tend to invest in places where there is less control over prices, and it is always better to do your clinical trials in the countries where you plan to market," he says. The shift of R&D out of Europe to the US is now "a pretty robust trend," adds Kaitin. "There is no indication that it will flop back unless the US switches to a different regulatory or pricing policy." This has made life harder for European innovators. "Things are not easy over here and haven't been for a long time," says David Glover, a clinical research expert who advises the UK pharmaceutical industry. Matters weren't helped by the TGN1412 trial disaster last year in London, which Glover suggests has delayed approval for biologics trials and induced companies to look elsewhere to conduct them. And note that it is lack of price controls here that makes the difference. You might think, "a year's delay in introduction of a medication isn't that big of a deal." I suppose it depends whether you need that medication to survive or not. In the case of some of the antipsychotics, the newer medicines may be the difference between side effects so ugly that mental patients won't stay on them, and side effects mild enough to be tolerable. A year's delay, for some people, might be the difference between spiraling out of control or not. Labels: health care Labels: politicians behaving badly Labels: gun rights Labels: humor, politicians behaving badly Labels: gun rights
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There Aren't Many Days More Discouraging Than This
The county commissioners held a hearing this morning at 9:30 to decide who to appoint to the Treasurer's job. Even though I was number three on the recommendation list, I figured that perhaps I could make such a good impression that it just might overcome my deficiencies for the job.
I left before 8:00 AM to drive to the county seat of Idaho City. The road from Horseshoe Bend to Idaho City is only 19 miles long, but much of it is unpaved, so you have to drive very slowly--but I still had plenty of time. About ten miles up, I was informed by someone coming down the road that a trailer had jack-knifed, and the road was completely blocked. There was no certainty about when the road would be cleared. So I turned around, and took the longer road through Boise.
I arrived about 10:15--walking in the door quite literally as the commissioners voted. I explained about the jack-knifed truck, and that, "Bad roads delay more than economic development." But it was too late. One of the commissioners apparently had really hoped to hear from me before voting--so perhaps this was a job that I might have had a small chance at getting if not for that jack-knifed trailer.
At times like this, I try to take some solace in Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of more than hour drive each way to work, but at least there are health insurance benefits--and I am increasingly concerned that when COBRA continuation runs out for me in May, there may be no health insurance available for me, at any price. (Perhaps because of the health care reform bill, it seems that insurers are getting increasingly restrictive about who they will take.)
In some ideal America, my research experience and effective scholarship for gun rights would be of some economic value to someone. If there were a national organization committed to gun rights, they could hire me, even at a very, very tiny salary (as long as there was health insurance), to do the type of research and writing that I have been doing very effectively for a number of years as a part-timer. But alas, there are no such national organizations.
Anyone Have Any Experience With Something Called Medi-Share?
At first glance, it looks like some sort of mutual health insurance company, or a health co-op (I think). But there's an explicitly Christian nature to it:I. MEDI-SHARE STANDARDS AND PURPOSE
I'm at first hard pressed to see a fundamental difference between what the early Christian Church did (holding everything in common) and this same approach with respect to health care.
I am always a bit suspicious when someone puts a Christian face on fundamentally a business, since it is such an effective way to take advantage of naive and trusting people, so I am curious to hear what anyone with experience with Medi-Share has to say.
UPDATE: Curious. There is some sort of legal squabble going on in Kentucky about Medi-Share not being an insurance company, with the Department of Insurance upset--but this 2008 article in Insurance Journal also reports: "Vicki Glass, spokeswoman for the Kentucky attorney general's office, said her office has investigated no complaints."
A group called Physicians for a National Health Plan is upset because Medi-Share's model is to exclude non-Christians (and Christians with serious pre-existing health conditions)--but they don't seem to have any specific criticisms of whether Medi-Share's uninsurance program actually works.
This October 25, 2005 Washington Post article discusses Medi-Share and two other similar faith-based expense sharing plans, and gives a bit more detail about how they work:
While one of the other Christian health plans apparently had a problem with management running wild with the money (including hiring a stripper?)--and is now under new management--there seem to have been few complaints against Medi-Share or Samaritan.
They keep costs under control both by excluding those with "Tobacco use, immoderate drinking, homosexuality and extramarital sex" and expelling those found, but also with a not too shocking form of cost control:
This blogger, ChristianPF points out some risks:
I would like to think that someone who was going to sign up for this (which requires your pastor to write a letter about your Christian witness) isn't going to be backsliding. But I also know that there are way, way too many people who are attending church regularly, think of themselves as good Christians--and yet, end up in adulterous affairs which give them STDs, or have substance abuse problems.
This discussion, which seems to be among insurance agents, points out:Some conditions, particularly those related to STD, mental illness or substance abuse may not be covered. If a woman is pregnant & her life is in danger the plan will not pay to terminate the pregnancy.
I would worry about the mental illness aspects of this. Unfortunately, there are Christians who are convinced that mental illness really doesn't exist, and you would want to verify with Medi-Share what level of reimbursement they are going to be providing if a family member has some sort of mental illness problem.
I Don't Remember Snow in October Last Year
Indeed, you can see the panoramic picture that I took October 26, 2008 here, and there's not a hint of snow. It's not sticking, but we have been getting flurries off and on for a couple of days. I'm expecting a hard winter.
New York Arrogance
I saw this story in the October 29, 2009 Idaho Statesman, and I still can't quite get over the arrogance of it:
How kind of him! He can find out that we don't have tails and horns before he lowers himself to being the Democratic nominee!
Probably The Most Dishonest Action Ever Taken By An Elected Government
Berthold Brecht is most noted as the Communist who, when East Germany finally abandoned all pretense of building socialist utopia, observed, "The government is unhappy with the people; then let the government elect a new people." Well, it now appears that the Labour Party in Britain effectively did that. From the October 28, 2009 Daily Mail:
It's pretty clear that the Democrats (and much of the Republican Party as well) is intent on the same strategy. They aren't happy with the people and culture that lives here--just allow and encourage mass illegal immigration so that they can have a new population.
The Government's 'driving political purpose', wrote Neather, was 'to make the UK truly multicultural'.
It was therefore a politically motivated attempt by ministers to transform the fundamental make-up and identity of this country. It was done to destroy the right of the British people to live in a society defined by a common history, religion, law, language and traditions.
The real test of whether it is too late for Britain (and the U.S.) is whether a population that overwhelmingly (even among Democrats) wants illegal immigration stopped--can elect a Congress prepared to do so. Right now, I'm skeptical.
Why Is American Health Care So Expensive?
I've long pointed out that the models that the left wants us to follow--Britain, Canada, etc.--have their own sets of problems. But Dave over at Classical Values points out that by a number of measures of health care outcomes, the reason that our health care system is so expensive is because it works better than many of those fashionable systems elsewhere. A couple of examples that I tracked down to make sure that Dave wasn't misreading his sources.
From the September 25, 2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Got that? The U.S. had better cancer survival rates than the best European country--and therefore substantially better than the average European country.
Who is doing the most pharmaceutical research to produce more effective medicines? From the April 2007 Nature:For those hoping that Europe might be redressing the imbalance in R&D innovation compared with the United States, two recent reports make gloomy reading. According to a competitiveness report published in November 2006 by the European Commission's high-level Pharmaceutical Forum, the US has established itself firmly as the key innovator in pharmaceuticals since 2000. "That dominant position continues to expand... a disproportionate share of pharmaceutical R&D is performed in the US," it laments.
It is true that Americans have some very poor lifestyle choices that make our general health poor relative to say, Europeans or Japanese. I won't argue that point. (Although the British are catching up to us on bad diet and obesity.) But that's a failure of our government to play Nanny State, telling people what to eat, how much to eat, how much exercise to get, etc.--not a failure of our health care system. If you are a liberal, of course, telling people how to live is second nature (as long as the government doesn't tell anyone how to how sex, and with whom).
It's All Talk
I had a conversation last night with a bunch of adults in their 30s--and I was startled to hear remarks to the effect that the only real hope for fixing this country is revolution. I've been hearing remarks like this for the last few months; it isn't serious discussion, of course. (If they were seriously enough concerned, and there was more than just a few, we wouldn't have this idiot Congress and President.) But it does capture some of the frustration that a lot of Americans are beginning to have with how corrupt our system has become.
By corrupt, I don't mean, "supporting left-wing policies." I mean the way in which business interests have so completely captured control of Congress--including nearly all Democrats and many Republicans--that the concerns of ordinary Americans no longer matter. The unwillingness to crack down on illegal immigration, both at the border and at hiring time, is perhaps the most blatant example.
If the national Republican Party really wanted to win this next election, they would be paying attention to the rage, and telling the special interests that bought them off about health care reform, about immigration, and about pork barrel spending, to go take a hike. But the national Republican Party has its ears so deep in the trough (next to the Democrats) that there seems to be no way to get their attention, except perhaps by converting both of these pigs into bacon.
Discrimination! Pass A Law!
It's a good thing gun owners (unlike certain other groups) don't insist on laws banning discrimination by private businesses. Instead, we take a more polite approach: we tell businesses that don't want our business that we'll go elsewhere. The Smallest Minority has a nice article about politely leaving a note on the subject.
If Idaho had enough businesses to bother with such cards, I would keep them in my wallet. But with the exception of the Edwards Cinemas in Boise, I've never seen any "no concealed weapon" signs on businesses here in Idaho.
Governor Schwarzenegger's Veto Message
I can't decide whether to be disappointed at the vulgarity, or impressed with the subtlety. Governor Schwarzenegger was very disappointed with a bill put on his desk--and he vetoed it. And his veto message, if you read the first letter of each of the seven lines, spells out a message. A message that I am too polite to repeat.
Coincidence, his staff says. Yeah, right. And that's why he picked the phrase, "kicks the can down the alley?"
"Sexy Chest Tattoos"
I was walking by a computer in a library recently, and I saw a teenage gal doing a image search in Google that, as far as I am concerned, should have returned zero images (except perhaps for satirical pictures)--but maybe that's just me.
There were men. There were women. And of all the adjectives I might attach to "chest tattoo," sexy isn't one of them.
The sad part to all this is that the young lady is probably looking for something that will attract attention to her. She was carrying an extra 40-60 pounds--but without it, she would be a very attractive young lady--and in a way that no "sexy chest tattoo" will ever make her.
Cult of Personality
There are some things that are so nauseating, so repulsive, so corrupting to the soul, so completely age inappropriate, that you just shouldn't expose children to them too young. Yes, you know what I mean...politics.
I think all of us expect (or at least hope) that some of our fundamental assumptions about politics will rub off on our children (at least, once they get through the brainwashing system of college), but I would never have thought of reading my children a book like this one: Mama Voted For Obama!
Is it just me, or is this like, weird? If Fred Thompson had won the Republican nomination last year, and then won the election, I would never, ever have thought of bringing small children a book to read equivalent to this. I'm not comparing Obama to Hitler because of this book. I will compare some of Obama's cult of personality followers to Hitler's followers, however.
It Has Been A Busy Day
My wife has been sick with a cold, so I took over (on a rather abbreviated basis) her English Composition classes today--mostly picking up assignments and returning papers--but since one of the handouts for discussion Thursday was Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," I had a chance to discuss the nature of satire. I was not surprised that no one had heard of Jonathan Swift; I was disappointed at how few students had a clue about Gulliver's Travels. A great cultural loss, indeed. (Although one student not only knew about Gulliver's Travels, and he was even able to articulate the "big-endian, little-endian" satire on the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.)
I have also been finishing up a law review article with Dave Kopel that will be a bit of a bombshell when it comes out. The rather inflammatory nature of it means that I was making sure that everything is perfectly cited and fact checked--and that I had all the primary source pages available, to demonstrate the nature of the fraud in question.
I'm doing some pretty astonishing work in support of McDonald v. Chicago. I just wish that there was a national gun rights organization out there with enough money to offer me a tiny salary and health insurance benefits, so that I could do this full-time. But unfortunately, there are no such organizations.
PajamasMedia Publishes Another!
"Openly Carrying Guns Can Be Unwise, Even When It’s Legal" As you might expect, the comments are coming fast and furious from those who can't seem to understand the difference between, "Open carry should be illegal" and "It might not be the most effective way to win friends and influence people."
