Health Care News on Washington state order

The Heartland Institute’s Ben Domenech, managing editor of Health Care News, revisits the cease-and-desist order issued against Samaritan Ministries by the state of Washington’s Office of Insurance Commissioner in April and the subsequent passage of legislation protecting health care sharing ministries in the state. The OIC then dropped the order prohibiting Samaritan from operating in that state.

Domenech quoted Samaritan vice president James Lansberry.

“This is the prudent thing for the Department to do,” said Lansberry. “If the Department had persisted with this order, hundreds of people who are effectively and efficiently sharing each other’s medical needs would, at best, have had their access to assistance disrupted. Samaritan Ministries is not a third party payer and is obviously providing a private innovation that truly works for many people – how was this ever perceived as a problem?”