Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 17, 1993 TAG: 9305170068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: THOMAS J. SHEERAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BARBERTON, OHIO LENGTH: Medium
A clergyman's health-care system relying on good faith to cover medical bills gives a timely twist to the issue of church vs. state.
As the Clinton administration ponders how to provide medical coverage for 36 million Americans without insurance, the 21,000 subscribers to the Christian Brotherhood Newsletter help each other with $2 million in monthly doctor and hospital bills.
Twenty-five states have questioned whether the nonprofit newsletter amounts to mail-order insurance that should be regulated. Delaware, Maryland, Washington and Wisconsin have banned it.
The Rev. Bruce Hawthorn says he relishes the attention of regulators, saying membership grows after each encounter with bureaucrats.
The network, based in the Akron suburb of Barberton, is growing by about 1,000 members monthly, bringing $50,000 more each month for those whose needs are published for other members to meet.
Hawthorn credits divine inspiration for the program. "The program is God's," he said. "Greed would have destroyed it."
Hawthorn, 52, founded the newsletter in 1981 after a traffic accident in which his wife and 4-year-old daughter were killed and three other family members were injured. Friends familiar with his work at an Akron mission for alcoholics paid his $54,000 in bills from the accident.
"I realized there needed to be a program like this if for no other reason the spiritual and the emotional support that you receive when you're going through a tragedy," Hawthorn said.
Single subscribers pay $50 monthly; families pay $150.
Eleven months a year, subscribers receive notices asking them to mail their gift directly to a person whose name, diagnosis and expenses are detailed. One payment a year goes to the newsletter to cover costs.
Hawthorn draws an annual salary of $40,000. The average salary among 60 employees is $21,900. Hawthorn said the donation structure means 91 percent of the gifts go directly to those in need.
The Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Ohio attorney general's office have no complaints with the newsletter.
"It looks like an old-fashioned `look out for one another' type of thing," said Paul Griffo of the Postal Inspection Service.
Hawthorn noted that contributions are voluntary, and no benefits are guaranteed. "I'll publish your needs; I'm not insuring you," he said.
Hawthorn said he knows of only three or four cases in which subscribers pocketed money meant for medical bills. The newsletter alerted pastors but never sued or sought criminal charges.
"You can lie. You can cheat. But God can get you," he said.
by CNB