The recent decision by federal law enforcement officials to shut down what they call a fraudulent, faith-based Missouri medical cost-sharing company reveals, again, a major failure of America’s health care system.
Beyond that, it gives people one more reason to be wary of initiatives marketed as religious ministries with government oversight. The reputation of legitimate institutional religion gets enough self-inflicted wounds (sex abuse scandals, money-grubbing televangelists) without a private, highly questionable health care ministry adding to the list.
The FBI and attorneys for the Department of Justice have shut down the St. Joseph-based Medical Cost Sharing Inc. Those authorities say the company marketed a well-planned fraud that drew in customers by seeking out “like-minded Christians.”
What’s especially disheartening about this is that people have complained publicly about this cost-sharing group for years. In fact, in the summer of 2017, The Star reported that at least eight people said they had paid into the fund without receiving a dime to cover their medical treatments.
The legal system now will have to sort out whether crimes were committed and, if so, who should be held accountable. But what we already know is that if the American health care system worked in an equitable way, even legitimate cost-sharing ministries wouldn’t be needed. For people ineligible for Medicare and/or Medicaid (and neither of those systems is perfect), the American health insurance system is a wild, confusing mess.