Civic Studies » healthcare http://civicstudies.org An intellectual community of researchers and practitioners dedicated to building the emerging field of civic studies Mon, 30 Mar 2026 14:08:56 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.41 ‘Ethics & Public Policy’ course in Fall ’18 https://ericthomasweber.org/ethics-public-policy-course-in-fall-18/ https://ericthomasweber.org/ethics-public-policy-course-in-fall-18/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2018 20:23:08 +0000 http://ericthomasweber.org/?p=1869 For the Fall semester of 2018, I’m planning an upper level course here at the University of Kentucky in ‘Ethics and Public Policy,’ PHI 531, Section 1, which will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 – 4:45 pm. The course will begin with an examination of major moral traditions as well as ethical problems […]

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Continue reading →]]> http://civicstudies.org/2018/04/10/ethics-public-policy-course-in-fall-18/feed/ 0 Faith-Based Insurance Pools for Healthcare: A Better Alternative? http://bollier.org/blog/faith-based-insurance-pools-healthcare-better-alternative http://bollier.org/blog/faith-based-insurance-pools-healthcare-better-alternative#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2016 18:21:02 +0000 http://civicstudies.org/?guid=f75cd41a48e5fa0f18aa66163cb2c391 As healthcare insurance prices in the US have skyrocketed, despite passage of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act in 2010, many Americans are turning to a new/old solution:  mutualized self-help.  As reported in the New York Times, many Christian groups in the US are forming their own unregulated insurance pools to pay the medical bills of their members. Nearly 200,000 people in 58,000 households are now paying their medical expenses in this fashion, to the tune of over $20 million a month. They constitute self-organized financial commons for healthcare.

This trend raises some fascinating questions about state/corporate bureaucracies vs. social commons:  Which offers the better value?  Which is more reliable and satisfying?  Could social commons help bring down the cost of conventional insurance while introducing a more human, caring dimension to healthcare?

Reporter Abby Goodnough tells the story of a family that was priced out of the insurance market, and so decided to cover their potential medical bills through a “sharing ministry.”  Instead of paying $600 per month for insurance with a $10,000 family deductible, the Doyle family in San Antonio, Texas, now pays $405 per month.  They also pay the first $300 for any medical bill they receive, and there is a spending cap of $250,000 for any illness or injury.

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