Category: Health Care
5 takeaways from the chaotic, combative vaccine advisory meeting
A key federal vaccine advisory committee voted Friday to do away with the recommendation that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine. The vote came after two days of charged, contentious debate among panelists and concerned stakeholders, and it fulfilled a long-held goal of the anti-vaccine movement. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and…
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been rocked by recent changes to several leadership roles while it has grappled with how to handle new vaccine guidance. The agency has changed — five times this year — its director for The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and has seen another recent leadership…
Karl Rove on midterms: Republicans need health care agenda or they’ll be ‘in deep trouble’
GOP strategist Karl Rove said Republicans need to have a health care agenda ahead of the midterm elections or they’ll be in “deep trouble” with their voters. In an interview Saturday on Fox News’s “Journal Editorial Report,” Rove said Republicans need to have a health care plan to share with voters next year, along with…
Trump fires back at Walz over MRI comments: ‘If they want to release it, it’s okay’
President Trump on Sunday took a swing at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) over comments the governor made in which he pressed the president to “release the MRI results.” “Governor Walz asked you to release the MRI records,” a reporter on Air Force One noted to Trump. “Governor Walz? You mean, the incompetent governor? So,…
What a federal ban on THC-infused drinks and snacks could mean for the hemp industry
By Steve Karnowski and Gene Johnson, The Associated Press The production lines at Indeed Brewing moved quickly, the cans filling not with beer, but with THC-infused seltzer. The product, which features the compound that gets cannabis users high, has been a lifeline at Indeed and other craft breweries as alcohol sales have fallen in recent years. But…
Measles cases surge as deaths decline globally: WHO
Measles cases are surging as deaths from the disease go down globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “Modelled estimates show that the annual number of measles cases decreased from approximately 38 million in 2000 to 11 million in 2024, while the number of measles deaths fell from 780 000 to 95 000, among…
Trump says he’d ‘rather not’ extend Affordable Care Act subsidies
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Trump on Tuesday said he would prefer not to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, but he acknowledged it may be necessary to reach an agreement on health care legislation. Trump, in response to a question from The Hill,…
Why Trump’s Obesity Drug ‘Deal’ Will Help Big Pharma Most Of All
With the market for GLP-1s already exploding, Americans might be best served by a government that focuses on promoting competition to drive down prices.
Take back your health care: A Christian model that puts families first
Presidio Healthcare recently made history by launching the nation’s first pro-life, Christian health insurance option in Texas at a time when many families are experiencing both historic rate increases and decreasing subsidies in the Obamacare marketplace.
While the heart of our mission focuses on serving families with an affordable option that protects both their values and their financial security, the vision for how we accomplish that aim rests on a lesser-known Christian principle that I believe provides a road map for reforming our broken health care system.
Health care policy should focus on expanding options for families while empowering them to own their own health insurance.
That principle is called “subsidiarity,” which represents a system of values that puts families first — in contrast to our current system that ignores the individualized needs of Americans.
The Christian principle of subsidiarity states “that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest, or least centralized competent authority rather than by a higher and more distant one, whenever possible.”
The latest debate over Obamacare subsidies serves as a great example of how our current system prioritizes the higher and more distant authority (i.e., Washington, D.C.) over the least centralized authority (i.e., American families).
The Obamacare market was designed to provide subsidies for low-income Americans, which by itself does not inherently violate the principle of subsidiarity. Rather, the problem lies with the insistence that this one federally controlled market should serve as a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, including middle-income Americans who do not qualify for adequate subsidies.
The centralized answer that Democrats offer requires the Obamacare market to be propped up inefficiently with more subsidies. The subsidiarity answer would propose decentralizing the market by allowing alternative risk pools regulated at the state level to serve the middle-income Americans with products designed for their needs.
To summarize the principle for a broader application: Health care policy should focus on expanding options for families while empowering them to own their own health insurance.
In a decentralized system, Americans would become smarter consumers of health care as they bear the responsibility of owning and paying for their own health care expenses. The impact would reach beyond the economic. The key benefit to subsidiarity is its preservation of each of our relationships to God through our individual decision-making responsibility.
If tomorrow’s health care shoppers were individuals and families (instead of governments and employers), private insurance markets would be forced to serve the Christian and pro-life values of families, as opposed to our current system of serving government agendas and large employer needs. Presidio is building toward that tomorrow and starting now in Texas.
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EKIN KIZILKAYA/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Unfortunately, there is a major roadblock to this future.
Ironically, the employer-sponsored marketplace and the single-payor Medicare program — two markets that conservatives often support — in many ways violate the principle of subsidiarity to a greater degree than the much smaller Obamacare individual market.
We need to be consistent if we want to reform our health care system. Employers control the health insurance decisions for close to 150 million Americans, and all of us are forced to pay into a federally centralized Medicare program that exhibits some of the worst elements of socialism, such as dictating prices that distort our entire system.
The spiritual impact is evident through the contraceptive mandate and employer decisions that force millions of Christians to be insured on products that cover abortion, abortifacients, contraception, and other immoral services. Through Medicare, we have collectively forfeited our health care autonomy to Washington, D.C., when we turn 65, creating problematic scenarios that could prioritize our federal budget over dignified treatment for end-of-life care.
We need to do more than just talk about Obamacare — and we need take action now.
The good news is that health care policymakers need to look no farther than to what the private market is already doing.
Presidio is part of a decades-long movement in the health care industry to launch innovative alternative services that serve families directly. This includes affordable non-Obamacare alternatives, health-sharing ministry plans, and, more recently, “ICHRA” benefit platforms that are moving employers out of the business of purchasing health insurance and into a defined contribution model where employees purchase and own their own insurance.
The road map is there. Government and employers can assist families in purchasing health insurance rather than purchasing it for them. Private market innovations would follow.
At Presidio, we are building toward a future where subsidiarity replaces centrally controlled markets and the pro-life values of Christian Americans drive pro-life health insurance options that help fund life-affirming care. We do not take federal subsidies, and we do not want your employer forcing you to have Presidio coverage.
As in all authentic Christian movements, we rely on individual families to help build Presidio, and we look forward to serving your needs while we expand our vision of a health care system in America founded on the principle of subsidiarity.
