HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, will allow states to mandate insurance payments for faith-healing.
The current health care reform bill in the House contains a cleverly-written clause that would allow states to mandate payments to faith-healers.
SEC. 238. STATE PROHIBITIONS ON DISCRIMINATION AGAINST HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS.
This Act (and the amendments made by this Act) shall not be construed as superseding laws, as they now or hereinafter exist, of any State or jurisdiction designed to prohibit a qualified health benefits plan from discriminating with respect to participation, reimbursement, covered services, indemnification, or related requirements under such plan against a health care provider that is acting within the scope of that provider’s license or certification under applicable State law.
This would explicitly allow states to enact laws at any time to license alternative practitioners such as Christian Science "healers", homeopaths, etc., and then pass non-discrimination laws that would, in fact, force insurance plans to pay for these sectarian services.
This problematic clause could be fixed with one simple strike-out:
This Act (and the amendments made by this Act) shall not be construed as superseding laws...
This one simple change would forbid states from forcing insurance plans to pay for non-science-based practices. This is critical to preserving sustainability, and the scientific, moral, and fiscal integrity of health care reform. Health care for all is a moral imperative, but fake health care for all is not.