What would be the legal roadblocks to the Catholics just starting up their own insurance company?

[zbdent]

AND ... if you think about it ... many of the representatives seem to point out that the Catholic Church provides hospitals, health care, and such, so why would they need to even have insurance? I mean, if you believe them, they'd probably treat you if you walked in and announced that you were Catholic and you needed treatment.

[UrbScotty]

1. Then there'd be one less issue to use against Obama. But cynicism aside

(and I do believe the brouhaha is due in part to certain people's desire to see Obama ousted), I don't see why they can't.

If you want to get life insurance from the Knights of Columbus, you must either be a Knight or a relative of a Knight. And to be a Knight, you have to be a Catholic "in communion with the Holy See." So there is what amounts to be a Catholics-only life insurance program. If they want to set up a Catholics-only health insurance program, I see nothing wrong with that.

As for your last sentence: Mom went in for tests yesterday (she's fine), and the hospital (not a Catholic one) had signs posted that if you have a medical emergency, they are required by law to care for you. I think that also applies to Catholic hospitals, so if you're a lesbian atheist and you're having a heart attack, St. Mary's here in Grand Rapids can't force you to go somewhere else.

(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.)

[demosincebirth]

2. Catholic hospitals are not every where...mostly in big urban areas.

[Paula Sims]

3. Bottom line -- it's an issue of money.

There's is nothing stopping them and frankly, I think people would LOVE the idea of a Catholic Insurance but. . .

1) The money backing would be astronomical. It's not like a credit union. Yes, "the Church" can afford it, but I doubt it would want to.

2) Just announcing one is Catholic may not be enough. There are large denominations of Catholics, the biggest being between East (Byzantine) and West (Latin/Rome). For some "one Universal Catholic church" is not "one universal catholic church".

3) It would expose lots of secrets they wouldn't want exposed. For example, I miscarried in my 11th week. Technically, medically, according to coding, I had a "spontaneous abortion". Hmmm -- there's that word again. And doing a D&C -- would they refuse that?

There are too many differences here. In theory, great approach, but it's like the boogey man -- can't get rid of it because we need an enemy.

[Yo_Mama]

4. It wouldn't take any of this controversy away.

Once the Church formed an insurance company, under the law it would be regulated just like any other insurance company.

[mmonk]

5. None that I know of. We have life insurance from the Knights of Columbus.

They could add medical it would seem.