June 2nd, 2010 by AlanDappenMD in Better Health Network, Opinion, Primary Care Wednesdays, True Stories
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Today my brother Arthur helped someone stay alive a little bit longer. He wouldn’t be happy with how I used his story, but he’s dead enough to not hear it.
Art had an enormous IQ which helped him dance through school, standardized testing, and academic awards like a hot knife through butter. But life requires many skill sets, genius being just one. My brother’s biography in many ways mirrors that of the Unabomber’s — move for move — until one decisive moment when Jesus walked into Art’s life.
Forever and irrevocably from that moment forward, Art became God’s logic pugilist. Heretofore, all of his training in science and math was used to prove that the truth in the Bible could be found only in literal interpretation. Read more »
November 3rd, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Policy, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed
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Today the LA Times described a bizarre and troublesome healthcare reform bill provision that would require Medicare to pay for Christian Science Prayer as a medical treatment:
…a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.
The provision was inserted by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) with the support of Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry and the late Edward M. Kennedy, both of Massachusetts, home to the headquarters of the Church of Christ, Scientist.
The measure would put Christian Science prayer treatments — which substitute for or supplement medical treatments — on the same footing as clinical medicine. While not mentioning the church by name, it would prohibit discrimination against “religious and spiritual healthcare.”
Of course, I had warned about this very thing over a year ago on KevinMD’s blog – something I wish the LA Times had picked up on then. Read more »
