Do you want to be inspired? Watch this Reason video produced and narrated by Jim Epstein about “the Samaritan Ministries, an organization of devout Christians who chip in to cover each other’s medical bills.” And then, learn how the new health-care law may jeopardize efforts like this one.
As Epstein explains:
It would hardly be the first time that a new government entitlement destroyed a voluntary organization built around commonly held beliefs. Samaritan is one of the last “mutual aid societies,” organizations that up to the early twentieth century played an integral role in American life. In 1910, an estimated one-third of American men belonged to a fraternal organization, which provided temporary help to those unlucky enough to fall ill or lose a job. The mutual aid societies began disappearing with the rise of government programs such as welfare, Medicaid, food stamps, and unemployment insurance.
The whole thing is here.
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