BOSTON -- When I was a kid, I just assumed the separation of church and hospital. It's not that I didn't believe in the power of prayer, but when my appendix burst, I wanted a guy in a white coat, not a white collar.
The first time I realized how different things were in the Bush era was when Dr. W. David Hager was appointed to an advisory board of the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Hager was an OB/GYN who prescribed Corinthians and Romans for PMS.
After that, we saw the government take contraceptive information off one Web site and put phony links between abortion and breast cancer on another. That was just the beginning.
Welcome to the era of faith-based medicine.
The administration has just announced that, for the first time ever, federal employees will be offered a Catholic health plan. Starting in November, workers in 31 Illinois counties can enroll in a plan created explicitly according to Catholic tenets and marketed as "faith-based."
This plan is noted most for the things that it doesn't provide: Abortion, of course, even in the case of rape. Contraception, including emergency contraception. Sterilization. Artificial insemination and most other fertility treatments.
We don't know yet what the faith-based health plan will do about paying for other treatments that might challenge Catholic teachings. Will end-of-life care be determined by the patient or the latest directive from Rome?
This plan is defended as a "choice": If you don't want it, don't choose it. But if this is an opening wedge, choice may not be so simple, especially in the 100 counties across the country where Catholic hospitals are the sole providers.
It's no surprise that the first faith-based plan is Catholic, since 11 percent of all hospitals are run by Catholics. Many provide the exact same services as their secular counterparts, but the church has long led the fight against abortion and also against state laws that mandate contraceptive coverage. At last count, only 28 percent of their 600 emergency rooms offered emergency contraception to rape victims.
But this health care "first" is only a piece of the growing story of faith-based medicine. Another piece is in the "conscience clauses" being pushed to let health care workers and whole institutions opt out of providing health care, especially reproductive care, on religious grounds.
