Hatch: Insurers Should Pay for Spiritual Healing

"Backed by some of the most powerful members of the Senate, a little-noticed provision in the health care overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.

"The provision was inserted by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, with the support of Democrats John Kerry and the late Edward Kennedy, both of Massachusetts, which is home to the headquarters of the Church of Christ Scientist.

"The measure would put Christian Science prayer treatments -- which substitute for or supplement medical treatments -- on the same footing as clinical medicine. While not mentioning the church by name, it would prohibit discrimination against 'religious and spiritual health care.'

"It would have a minor impact on the overall cost of the bill. Christian Science is a small church, and the prayer treatments can cost as little as $20 a day. But it nevertheless has stirred controversy over the constitutional separation of church and state and the possibility that other churches might seek reimbursements for so-called spiritual healing."

(See also related NPR story.)