The Kansas Legislature just can’t help itself from passing special favors for the Christian right. This time, it’s tax breaks for health plans — for fundamentalist Christians only.
On Friday the Legislature won the battle over Senate Bill 368, giving tax cuts to Kansans participating in Christians-only health-care plans.
To start, it’s important to know what the bill isn’t.
It’s not about tax breaks for charitable donations to faith-based organizations that provide clinical services for the working poor, like United Methodist GraceMed or the Catholic Guadalupe Clinic. Those contributions are already deductible.
Senate Bill 368 — now state law — provides tax breaks to participants in what are called “health care sharing ministries.”
They’re similar to insurance, in that participants pay a monthly fee to belong and the money collected is pooled to pay claims by members.
But the plans are unregulated — so there’s no guarantee that costs will be paid — and you have to pass a religious test to join.
For example, Samaritan Ministries International, one of the major players backing SB 368, requires all its members to provide a signed statement from their pastor that they attend church at least three times a month, abstain from sex outside of one-man-one-woman marriage, and agree to settle coverage disputes out of court, by submitting them to “fellow believers for resolution.”
“Denominations that fall outside of Biblical, Christian faith — such as the Church of Scientology, Unitarian, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — do not qualify for the church attendance requirement,” the group’s website states.
SB 368 allows participants in that and similar plans to deduct their membership fees and any money they may receive from the pool for medical expenses, up to $5,000 per individual per year or $10,000 per married couple.
The fiscal note on the bill estimated that 11,000 Kansans would receive tax cuts and cost the state about $1.2 million a year.
Gov. Laura Kelly wisely vetoed the bill.
“There’s a reason that regulators across the country are taking action against these so-called health care ministries because too often, everyday people are left with huge medical bills,” she wrote in her veto message.
“These health care ministries aren’t regulated, which opens the door to all sorts of fraud and abuse. Let me be clear, this is not about limiting anyone’s ability to practice their faith freely, it’s entirely about ensuring that Kansans are in a health care system that’s reliable and actually covers their medical expenses.”
House Speaker Dan Hawkins and Senate President Ty Masterson immediately vowed to override, and on Friday, they carried through.
Senate Republicans overrode the veto Friday morning on the same 30-9 party-line split vote that the bill passed by.
