# Do Christian Scientists Get Health Benefits?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christian-scientists-get-health-benefits/9073>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 23, 2000, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christian-scientists-get-health-benefits/9073 "2000-03-23T20:53:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2000, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christian-scientists-get-health-benefits/9073/1 "2000-03-24T06:56:00Z")

</div>

Do people employed by the Christian Science  
Church get health benefits?

By law, I guess they would - it’s a big  
enough organization.

But I was wondering if anybody had first hand  
knowledge. Are they offered, but you’re  
supposed to decline?

Do you get them, but not use them?

Or do they only offer health plans with  
doctors that just pray?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2000, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-christian-scientists-get-health-benefits/9073/2 "2000-03-23T20:53:00Z")

</div>

What makes you think that “By law, I guess they would - it’s a big enough organization.” In the U.S., there is NO law compelling any organization, large or small, to provide health insurance. So they don’t have to if they don’t want to.

If an organization does choose to provide health insurance to employees (and most large organizations do), then there are laws about what that program can and cannot do to be eligible for favorable tax treatment. However, there is no requirement to do anything.

I presume that they are NOT exempt from paying Medicare premiums.