Federal Funding For Alternative Medicine

The following is a post I got from CFI (Center for Free Inquiry) that explains that the current health reform bill is at risk of being taken over by the likes of Sen. Tom Harkin from Iowa.  A purveyor of bogus health treatments.  He wants to be paid for his services like real doctors and he wants all bogus pedlers to be paid also.  This is dangerous, it means actually higher taxes for us to pay charlatons and provide less effective or uneffective treatments to those that need it. 
Please call or contact your Senators and your Representative urging them to remove the portions of health care reform that mandate all plans on the health insurance exchange cover religious and spiritual alternative medical techniques. You may send the enclosed letter by clicking on the button, or you may wish to modify the letter with your own words. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE. PLEASE SEND IT ASAP!




We seek your assistance in assuring that separation of church and state is preserved by making sure that taxpayer money is not spent to fund alternative, non-evidence based, religious, or spiritual medical treatments. If the health care bills in Congress pass as they are currently written, a nondiscrimination clause will force all insurance plans that participate in the insurance exchange to cover treatments such as therapeutic touch, Christian Science prayer healing, or even Scientology E-meter readings, none of which have any proven medical benefits. This clause would also require both Medicare and any public option that to provide this coverage, providing for taxpayer and government funding of potentially religious treatments. If this happens, it would represent an egregious violation of the principle of separation of church and state.



In addition, while it is important that all Americans have access to as many health care options as possible under health insurance reform, forcing insurers to cover treatments that have no proven medical benefits will only raise premiums and lower the overall quality of health care.



The only way we can both ensure taxpayer money is spent on proven medical treatments and preserve the separation of church and state is to take immediate action. Please contact your lawmakers and insist that they oppose the inclusion of a provision requiring coverage of non-evidence based alternative medical treatments.



Thank you for taking the time to act on this important issue.