Can God Get You A Discount?

And he Laid His Healing Touch Upon Me!

In the world of holistic medicine almost all of the treatments and techniques involved have been used for several hundred years or come from the same ideas of ancient healing methods. Herbs, acupuncture, aroma therapy, nutrition, are just a few examples of old holistic treatments that we use today. These methods are now medically coded for insurance reimbursement. However there is a controversial form of healing that has been known to lessen the risk of health problems as well as lessen the duration of some complications. This paper is about the healing power of prayer therapy.
            As long as there has been civilization there has been religion and with religion comes prayer. Prayer is a theoretical form of communication between us and a supreme being(s). People use prayer for anything and everything, but more importantly people use prayer to comfort themselves and others. People pray that they will remain healthy; people pray that their time for illness will pass sooner than later, and people also pray for their loved ones who are suffering in their health. 
    There have been several studies that show prayer helps people with mental health; stress, anxiety, and depression as well as physical problems such as; high blood pressure, time to heal wounds, heart attacks, and headaches. Why does this happen? Does prayer actually help cure people?  Koeing of Duke University believes “when prayer uplifts or calms, it inhibits cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine – hormones that flow out the adrenal glands in response to stress” The power of the mind can be a strong medicine and prayer is just fuel for the fire. However, many believe that divine intervention does happen. They believe that “God” does cure people daily; helps keep them safe and healthy.         
     If so many other ancient forms of healing that can be covered by insurance, will prayer join them soon enough?   Will people begin to see a discount on health insurance if they practice religion? If so will there be different amounts of discount for different religions? Is it even ethical to make a profit of someone’s prayers? These are all difficult questions than can be answered in more than one way. It’s possible that questions like these will prevent prayer from being recognized by insurance. Although, would you be all that surprised if soon enough more and more people started asking these very questions?