Religious wars...
McCarthy, Abigail
fordable health care. But his commitment is a matter of the cal labs, x-ray facilities, all would face a transformed market. spirit. It cannot be produced simply by legislation...
...Raising course is to relieve the pinching...
...A hand- urgency, all would be factors in purchasing medical services, ful of instructors in each medical school, and a handful of just as they are now in other purchasing decisions...
...cognizant of their responsibility, or at least coresponsibility with The costs are hidden, to a large extent, by medical insurance their physicians, for keeping costs down...
...Never mind that Cowell RELIGIOUS WARS...
...Seeing an insurance confirmation that a provider has ac- sibility for holding down health-care costs only begins here...
...For his been changed there now have this burnpart the pope has spoken frequently in de- ing desire to help alleviate the suffering...
...According to journalist Peggy "The aid sent through Medjugorje reachin an effort to seek a united statement from Stanton, they braved a possible aerial at- es everyone, regardless of nationality or Balkan religious leaders...
...What had been al- addition to a concert they plan "mighty common good-stemmed from the gospel...
...And patients might become more Nor do patients sufficiently internalize the cost of their care...
...In help for the downtrodden, sacrifice for the Church in Medjugorje...
...True, but sometimes we tend to make our may keep insurance rates down but it does not provide en- problems too complex...
...This modest reform would at once interest in the treatment you are ordering...
...Currently, attending physicians and chief residents, could ignite a spiri- the cost-factor is too often absent in medical considerations, tual transformation...
...I hear the paper tigers growling: "The health-care critypical copayment, if any, is a flat, nominal charge...
...most a ghost town was once again a place mite" coffers across America-each rais(He would hold the same today, I believe, of pilgrimage and prayers for peace...
...Recognizing that apples are apples and couragement to the patient to seek the least expensive treat- not pears, and that there are going to be a variety of changes in ment...
...don, the Queen's horse trainer, himself In his Christianity and Democracy, the drove a load of Christmas gifts, blankets, French philosopher Jacques Maritain held toys, and glucose across Europe to Bosthat, despite the religious wars and per- nia...
...ter's degree in applied economics from the John F. Kennedy Already there's an incentive to shop around...
...How so...
...Democratic ideals-equality, justice, miles from Ljubulski to Saint James ters in Washington, D.C., and Virginia...
...Not only is the leadership sacrifice of the relief workers in interna- what is more interesting is the prolifera- ecumenical but it brings together protional trouble spots from secular agencies tion of peace centers founded by those af- choice and prolife women...
...Despite arguments that medical students and this in turn is a major factor in runaway health costs...
...To date this appeal has sent ality could fill the void left by the collapse The village, for example, which had $500,000 in cash and $2.5 million in of communism...
...Lord Huntingformal religious channels...
...In some promised and performed no miracles of Hope, Inc., in Washington, D.C., which places the conflicts can be ages old, in healing and spoke only of peace, recon- send money and goods for the relief of others like Bosnia and Herzegovina they ciliation, and change of heart...
...Now consider this alternative...
...But mutual responitself...
...From the former World Bank president, who has In much the same way, and unnoticed beginning the visionaries at Medjugorje worked with Planned Parenthood, and by the media, a worldwide ecumenical net- have been somewhat unusual in their in- Mercedes Wilson, pioneering founder of work of believers has risen from the sistence that following Mary's words on Natural Family Planning...
...Suppose insurance companies JEREMIAH P. REILLY required a 10 percent copayment with a $5 minimum and a $50 Jeremiah P. Reilly, a writer and illustrator, holds a mascap...
...did so in the context of Pope John Paul's and justice...
...fense of the rights of Muslims in Bosnia, It's one of the spiritual fruits...
...The story com- prising conclusion that the pope "seeks to to ethnicity is tearing the post-cold war pressed into one column an admirably redefine religious diversity as a positive world apart...
...Muslims from religion...
...Hospitals, medi- School of Government at Harvard University...
...Is there a cal care...
...One of the were revived, it seems, only yesterday...
...A flat charge sis is not so simple...
...He The headline in the New York succinct review of the shift in the role of has sounded the hopeful note that the pope Times on February 12 drew religion since the end of the cold war and has a vision of religions united for peace little notice as far as I can tell...
...by virtue of the copayment...
...Bernard Ellis himself is ity for which the pope hopes and prays- a former Orthodox Jew who converted "the only struggle which religions can to Catholicism after having visited Medjustify....The moral struggle against man's jugorje...
...Why does treatment X cost so much...
...in Bosnia, was "liberated" and reopened In an interview with the National In this spirit he called together the ec- in June by a march of believers from thir- Catholic Register (February 14) Ellis said, umenical gathering in Assisi in January ty countries...
...world riven by religious conflict...
...The honorary like the French, Doctors without Borders, fected by Medjugorje and the relief efforts chairs are Charlotte Conable, wife of the and the Irish group, Concern...
...Each provider ture which encourages a self-centered, cost-blind attitude would make the costs of treatment more visible (and palpable) among physicians...
...OF SEVERAL MINDS Abigail McCarthy force capable of drawing on shared values" in a world where temporal politics have failed...
...And we patients can ask our providers I think that a minor change in health insurance might effec- questions, thereby raising their consciousness: How much will tively help patients to internalize a sense of the costs of medi- this cost me...
...Medjugorje, of will lead to practical good works and that financial help for the abused Muslim course, is the site of the purported ap- ecumenical reconciliation will be one of women and to arrange adoption for their pearances of the Blessed Virgin during the the fruits of her message...
...this treatment well spent...
...If the patient pays a flat charge, the consciousness of physicians and patients, coupled with a whether the treatment costs $50 or $125, he or she has not in- small structural change in health insurance, might be a signifternalized the cost of the treatment...
...Today's all sides...
...ing effort is in the making...
...Indeed in terms of world 6: 12 March 1993 Commonweal order that is a fact: neighbors of different world thronged Medjugorje despite the fact The resultant good works are exemfaiths battle each other in India, in the that, unlike the report of visionaries at some plified in peace centers like the Pilgrim's Middle East, in Azerbaijan, in what was other shrines, the Virgin at Medjugorje Peace Center in Clearwater, Florida, and Yugoslavia, in Northern Ireland...
...secutions pursued in the name of Chris- "A holy war?-Boy, have they got In this country an even more heartentianity, the tenets of Christianity had in the a lot of nerve...
...if costs pinch, one's re- jointly take responsibility for keeping costs in check...
...although less emphatically than ecu- The Medjugorje Appeal of Great menists might wish...
...Britain attracts help from interestingly In a mysterious way the new spiritual- varied sources...
...cepted a $700 payment for a $1,000 MRI bill doesn't hit you Physicians must be trained to routinely ask: Is the money for in the gut...
...Fundraising course of history worked like a leaven in for the violated women of Bosnia and their society and resulted in the rise of democ- tack from the Serbs as they marched ten babies has been launched by peace cenracy...
...leave medical school shackled with debt, I think the real ob- By restructuring insurance, providers might be forced to bestacle is the I-work-damn-hard-and-deserve-a-big-salary cul- come more accountable to the buying public...
...However, like most matters of behavior, cost-con- basis of cost...
...icant step in the transformation of health care in America...
...Do I really need treatment, a minimum percentage of the total cost, and that such this treatment anyway...
...During that time hun- they say, is meant for all religions, all na- Can we discern here some of the camdreds of thousands from all parts of the tions...
...I propose that there be a modest copayment for all cheaper provider...
...uses the caveat that there is much historiAND RELIGIOUS PEACE cal evidence to the contrary and that in a later story (February 24) he emphasized only the pope's stiff denunciation of the Muslim oppression of Christians in the Sudan...
...And holds that vision in a It read "Pope's Trip: New recent trip to Africa...
...Thus, I acknowledge that I am making a radical self-interest in finding the least expensive provider...
...But accept the visions or not, we have to con- most interesting is the Medjugorje Appeal, religious hatreds are so pervasive that it cede that the effect on those who do so is founded by British steel executive Berhardly seems possible that a new spiritu- remarkable...
...pope's new crusade...
...The message, babies if necessary...
...past eleven years...
...ing $10-and they hope to raise $10 milto explain the astonishing charity and self- That is remarkable enough, perhaps, but lion in all...
...nard Ellis...
...paigners in the new crusade...
...Whether we those suffering in the Balkans...
...give all patients the incentive to seek less expensive care, and I am well aware that this brief proposal may be attacked from it would bring providers into the free market...
...They will use Bosnian village of Medjugorje to assuage peace, conversion, prayer, and fasting the money to provide psychological and the world's suffering...
...This evidently is the "new crusade" of the headline...
...Crusade" and topped a story The story came to the somewhat sur- The common view is that religion tied by reporter Alan Cowell...
...He appealed to the horse racing disordered passions, against every kind of establishment for help with transport hatred and violence" (address in the Su- this last Christmas and was inundated by dan)- may be welling up from the grass- trainers and breeders offering horse boxes roots and spreading unheralded outside of (trucks) for that purpose...
...A $50 treatment would cost $5, a $125 treatment, $12.50...
...Quality, reliability, convenience, proximity, and sciousness in medical care can be taught by example...
...1: Commonweal 12 March 1993: 7...
...It cannot be produced simply by legislation or insur- In such a new market, consumers (the patients) would have a ance reform...
...It ought to: you are paying for it indirectly...
...Is there a generic substitute...
...Do you have any direct or beneficial payments would be capped...
...they organize and sponsor...
...It's a witness to the reality of Bosnia and Herzegovina answered the call Medjugorje that people whose lives have but the Serbian Orthodox did not...
...If costs are that it would benefit physicians and patients alike if we would diffuse, one's recourse is to complain...
...Yet this is the aim of the been cut off by the flare-up of hostilities food, clothing, and supplies...
...In other words, if costs pinched a little, patients might health care in the coming decade, it is reasonable to suggest start asking questions and considering alternatives...
...And as sure suggestion in calling for health-care providers to watch their as day follows night, some providers would compete on the costs...
Vol. 120 • March 1993 • No. 5
