Scott Preller, President of The Christian Science Board of Education, recently had a conversation with the Board of Directors on the subject of health care. The question put to the Directors was: “How is the Church responding to the Affordable Care Act—the law passed in the United States requiring all citizens to obtain health insurance?”
Margaret Rogers: The Christian Science Committee on Publication Office has been working diligently in Washington, DC—in particular with legislators—to see how Christian Scientists can be accommodated. At this point the two major choices are, one, what we call an “opt-out,” where Christian Scientists simply wouldn’t be required to have medical insurance based on their religious objections. The second route would be what you might call “inclusion,” where we are looking for a way that perhaps Christian Science nursing care and practitioner fees could be included in coverage if a Christian Scientist is required to buy health insurance.
Michael Pabst: We all know that the most important activity we can undertake is prayer. Otherwise, whatever solutions are found won’t be effective—they won’t be sustainable. So we are very hopeful that there is a solution unfolding that we might not be able to precisely describe at the moment. We are certainly exploring what makes human sense to explore—confident that God will lead us forward.
