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MEET HALO’S PARTNERS

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The Healthcare Advocacy and Leadership Organization’s partners hail from many parts of the United States and Canada. We thought you might like to know who we are. Thus, each month, a HALO partner will introduce himself or herself or, in this case, themselves.
Mike and Mary Schaefer, Members of HALO’s Advisory Board
By Mike Schaefer with Mary Schaefer

Mike and Mary Schaefer with HALO’s president, Julie Grimstad (center)

Mary came from a Catholic family of seven siblings and was raised in Woodland, California. I came from a Catholic family of six kids raised in Bismarck, North Dakota. Both of our families were always pro-life. Married in 1964, we had six children (one son and five daughters) with a spread of 16 years. Mary is a registered nurse and I was a civil engineer by profession. We live in the Sacramento, California area.
In 1972 and 1973, I was on assignment in Washington, DC. While in the Senate cafeteria on January 22, 1973, I noticed a table of eight or so women, all crying. I asked them what was wrong. They introduced me to ABORTION and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade decision. A few days later, Mary informed me that her mother, Clara, was very upset with this decision and was doing something about it. Clara helped start the HOTLINE for newly pregnant women looking for information in the Sacramento area.
Sacramento Life Center
After our return to Sacramento, Mary received training and joined the HOTLINE team. She served several years advising pregnant women about their options, other than abortion, to help them make life-affirming decisions. The Sacramento Life Center was started in the early 1970s, and Mary and I joined their Speakers Bureau in 1974. We talked to groups (e.g., church committees, Knights of Columbus Councils, and school PTAs) to inform them of the Supreme Court’s decision and the resources the Life Center offered. It was obvious to us that there was a lot of misunderstanding about abortion and what was allowed under the new “law.”
In 1982, when Mary was pregnant with our sixth child, she called Kaiser Permanente to make an appointment with an obstetrician. The receptionist asked, “Is this a keeper?” Mary responded, “Pardon me, this is a baby!” The receptionist explained that they had to ask because they didn’t want to waste the doctor’s time if a woman wanted to abort. She then informed Mary that, due to her age (41), she would have to take genetic testing and counselling. Mary said “NO!” to the testing and counselling because she had no intention of aborting our baby. She was required to sign a refusal statement, which she did
Arrested
In 1988, Mary and I took part in prayer and protest with Operation Rescue (mainly made up of Evangelical church groups) at an abortion chamber in Chico, 100 miles from Sacramento. I took pictures of the activities while 199 were arrested for blocking the clinic’s entrances. Mary was arrested, booked and mugshot. She had never been arrested before. The policeman was courteous. He asked if the zip ties were too tight on her wrists. (She could slip out of them and scratch her nose, which immediately started to itch, and then slip her hand back into the ties.)
The local paper read, “199 arrested at the abortion clinic.” A letter to the editor later said, “On Saturday I went with a friend to garage sales. If I had only known that Operation Rescue came to town, the paper would have reported, ‘200 people arrested’!”
There wasn’t enough room in the county jail, so all of them were released, but had to return to Chico several times for court hearings.
Our pro bono lawyer was not allowed to use words like “baby,” “fetus,” or “little human” in court hearings. However, someone was able to get a specimen of a miscarried baby, gestational age four months, from a retired physician. The dead baby was presented to the judge with the explanation, “This is what we are blocking the entrances to save.” At seeing this, the judge was about to collapse and had to be taken away. All of us were praying for him, but the bailiff told us we couldn’t pray on government property, so he sent us outside.
Although Mary’s and several others’ charges were dropped due to technicalities, many of those arrested were fined.
Helping Women and Babies, and Other Pro-life Activities
In 1989, I was asked to become the local Knights of Columbus Council’s Respect Life Director. This required an article on a pro-life issue each month for the KC newsletter, which made it possible to share pro-life information with the members and their families and friends. I continued as Respect Life Director until 2017.
Another opportunity to improve communication on pro-life issues occurred in 1990 when Mary and I joined a half dozen people who started Catholics For Life of Northern California. One of our objectives was to assist our bishop, Francis Quinn, in pro-life outreach. He asked us to help set up a maternity home for women in crisis pregnancies. A group home with seven bedrooms was found and our group provided the loving care and correction necessary to transform it into a cozy home for pregnant ladies and new mothers and their babies. We named it “The Bishop Gallegos Maternity Home.” After hiring a house mother-home director, we opened our door to receive the first six ladies in need of help. The home has been operating since 1992, has been expanded to 12 bedrooms, and has many pages of decisions by women to have their babies. Incorporated and independent of the diocese, the home has served more than 800 women. Mary coordinated the raffle and silent auction at the Home’s major fundraising dinner each year for 15 years.
In 2003, Mary and I wanted to devote a month (October) to some pro-life activity. We ended up in Minneapolis-St Paul with Human Life Alliance (HLA). This is when we met Jo Tolck (vice president of HALO), who was then HLA’s executive director, and her wonderful hard-working staff, whom we admired very much. We became advisors to HLA. During our stay, we lived in our RV. God was generous as it didn’t start to snow until the day we left St. Paul on October 29th. Subsequently, we were able to help the staff when they traveled to California by providing them with lodging, transportation, and contacts in the Sacramento Diocesan Office as well as in this area of northern California. It was very interesting.
Caregivers for Our Elderly Loved Ones
Mary and I were on the team that took care of Mary’s parents, Joe and Clara, for the last six years of their lives. Mary’s three brothers, two sisters, and we each took 24 hours weekly to help them.
Joe had Parkinson’s disease and survived a quadruple bypass. He had been on hospice four times and said we took such good care of him that we weren’t letting him go. One hospice nurse suggested that we drug him and let him die when he had a bladder infection – “It’s an easy death.” Mary said, “It’s not a kidney he needs. Get him antibiotics!” He lived another two years and was a companion to his wife and a dad to all of us. He died in 2002 at age 94.
Mary’s mom had a weak heart but lived another five years with family help, until she broke her hip. The doctor didn’t think she could withstand surgery. She died a few days later in 2007 at 92.
God called and they were ready; no one was rushing them. Thank you, God.
In 2004, I was with my sister Ree, age 70, who had lung cancer and was on hospice. She was not in a coma. The hospice nurse said, “No food or water.” I did put ice on her lips. which were dry and cracked. The hospital staff backed away when hospice entered the picture. Ree seemed to be uncomfortable and in pain. She stopped her struggled breathing at 8:00 am the next morning and died. I felt guilty that I couldn’t do something to make her more comfortable. Did the hospice let me down by not checking on her at least once in the 24 hours before she died? I could have used a HALO advocate at that time. This experience was an eye-opener for me about end-of-life issues.
Our children are all still alive and starting to talk to Mary and me about our desires in the years we have left. As a potential teaching moment, we have written them a letter “from the grave” and we have selected a daughter who will speak for us if we become incapacitated. When this life is over for us, we hope our efforts to uphold the dignity of each person’s life will be satisfactory to the Lord of Life.

An alternative to anti-life coverage found in health insurance

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by William Beckman
HALO Advisory Committee Member
Over the last 15 years many states have passed laws requiring that health insurance fully cover contraceptives, including abortifacients like Plan B and Ella. With the passage of the Federal “Affordable Care” Act in 2010, more requirements were issued for full coverage of sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraceptives under the HHS Mandate. Health insurance policies available through the insurance exchanges in most cases are making it almost impossible to learn which policies do not cover abortion.
In this anti-life health insurance environment, are there any alternatives that provide a means to prevent your health insurance premiums from funding attacks on pre-born life?

One avenue to consider is making a switch to a healthcare sharing ministry as an alternative to health insurance. While this approach may not be a good solution for everyone, it is certainly an option to evaluate. Healthcare sharing ministries offer the benefit of not funding anti-life drugs and procedures, but also offer lower monthly expenditures for many families. Savings are achieved because these ministries only accept Christians who practice moral principles that lead to more healthy lives.

The two most prominent healthcare sharing ministries are Medi-Share (from Christian Care Ministry) and Samaritan Ministries. Details about Medi-Share can be found at http://mychristiancare.org/medi-share/. Learn more about Samaritan Ministries at http://samaritanministries.org/. Another option is Solidarity Healthshare at https://www.solidarityhealthshare.org/.

Fortunately, even the Affordable Care Act made an accommodation for healthcare sharing ministries. The Affordable Care Act contains a special provision for members of healthcare sharing ministries, making members exempt from the mandate requiring citizens to purchase insurance starting in 2014 or face financial penalties.

Unlike health insurance where you pay a premium to a company, healthcare sharing ministries each establish a community of Christians who share each other’s medical bills. Members’ share dollars are never used for unbiblical procedures or treatments like abortion or the morning after pill. Members know their share dollars are going directly to help fellow members pay eligible medical bills. Members also pray for and send notes of encouragement to each other, supported by an organization that provides health education and promotes biblical living.

Healthcare sharing ministries have a 20 year track record of success. My family has relied on Medi-Share for a number of years. Now that we qualify for Medicare, we are using Senior Assist from Medi-Share in place of other supplemental insurance options from traditional insurance companies. I know people who have relied on Samaritan Ministries and have been satisfied with them as well. A comparison of Medi-Share and Samaritan Ministries can be found at:
About the author: William Beckman is retired executive director at Illinois Right to Life Committee (IRLC) in Chicago. In that role he has covered and researched topics on a wide variety of life issues including abortion, contraception, stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, assisted suicide, euthanasia, hospice, brain death, and other end-of-life issues.

Sources of Medical Care

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HALO’S mission includes “promotion and development of concrete life-affirming healthcare alternatives.” This month, we are featuring two unique ways to deliver quality healthcare that is life-affirming and cost-effective for both patients and doctors. Pamela Wible, MD, shares how changing the way she practiced medicine saved her life. And Twila Brace, RN, PHN, explains the Wedge of Health Freedom, an escape route for patients from outsider control over their medical care, and her organization’s plan to establish hospitals that “could include faith-based hospitals free from conscience-violating mandates and the high costs of managed care restrictions and government regulations.” Enjoy!

ESCAPING CORPORATE MEDICINE
HOW MY PATIENTS PREVENTED MY SUICIDE AND STARTED A MEDICAL REVOLUTION

By Pamela Wible, MD
April 1, 2019

Today is the anniversary of my suicide survival story—a happy ending to six weeks of unrelenting thoughts of dying when forced to see patients every ten minutes in big-box assembly-line clinics. My lifelong dream of being a trusted, loving family doc doing house calls was gone. I saw no way out.
Until I told my patients I was suicidal.
I begged for their help. I asked them to create an ideal clinic, even write my job description. I promised to do whatever they wanted. My life sucked. I had nothing to lose. I figured we could all escape corporate medicine together. They were game.
Soon more than 100 patients delivered written testimony. I was SO excited to read it all. We adopted 90% of their amazing ideas and just one month later (with no outside funding) we opened the first ideal clinic—designed entirely by patients. Today is our 14-year anniversary of the most beautiful gift a community could ever give me—the ability to be a real doctor.
Now I do house calls. I absolutely adore my patients. And I’ve never turned anyone away for lack of money.
How we did it
My patients have not only helped me, they’ve inspired hundreds of doctors to replicate our community clinic around the world. Check out the 2-minute TV clip at Dr. Wible’s Ideal Clinic on Vimeo.
Here is the transcript of the video.
Pamela Wible says her parents—both physicians—advised her not to follow in their footsteps. She ignored them. But being a doctor was not what she expected. “I remember one day seeing 45 patients.” After six jobs in ten years, all of them in her words “assembly-line medicine,” she ended up in bed seriously depressed. She had an idea—a vision of how she could save other doctors and her career. She decided to host a series of town hall meetings to let patients design her practice. Wible listened and took more than 100 pages of testimony.
Now there’s no receptionist at Dr. Wible’s office, no billing department, not even a nurse.
What do you want when you’re sick? You don’t want to park in a three-story parking garage, and you don’t want to sit in a cafeteria-style waiting room, and you don’t want to talk through bullet-proof glass when you’re sick. And you don’t want to be asked for your credit card and your insurance card and all the things that people are hassled to do when they are not feeling well.
Her overhead expenses have gone from close to 80% to 10% and that means she can afford to spend as much as an hour per visit—making her a better doctor and bringing the joy back into her job.
Wible performs minor surgery in her office and gives patients balloons and other gifts for coming in. And she sometimes barters with her patients for medical care.
“So your practice is so unique that you are exchanging this meal for surgery?”
“This meal and other meals,” Dr. Wible explains.
Wible’s ideas are starting to gain traction.
“I recently opened a clinic called Happy Doc Family Medicine. I wanted to show you around,” says Laura Knudsen, MD.
Dr. Wible is saying she can spend an hour with a patient. How many practices can do that?
She says that is what makes her happy and that’s what makes the patient happy. She says this actually can work. She’s making more money now than she was before and she is doing less work. She saves money by not having any staff. She does her billing using an online system. She says her start-up costs [for her first full year] were only about $3000 to buy the furniture and the equipment. (Actually, I only spent $627 to launch on day one!)
The original article introduces some of the coolest doctors who have just launched ideal clinics. See http://www.idealmedicalcare.org/how-my-patients-prevented-my-suicide/.
Reprinted with Dr. Wible’s permission.

THE WEDGE OF HEALTH FREEDOM
Finding an Affordable Doctor Who Works Only for You

By Twila Brase, RN, PHN, president and co-founder, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom and author of the award-winning book, “Big Brother in the Exam Room: The Dangerous Truth About Electronic Health Records.”
April 29, 2019

Americans should not settle for socialized medicine. “Medicare for All” may be on the lips of leftists everywhere, but freedom is what made America great. Freedom is what will keep America great.
The way to maintain freedom for patients and doctors is already here. You may not realize it, but clinics and surgery centers offering affordable, confidential, patient-centered care, free from outsider controls, are sprinkled around the nation. And I’m pleased to say, more are on their way.
These direct-pay clinics accept only cash, check or charge. If you’re insured or covered by a government program, getting reimbursed fully or partially is between you and your medical insurance company.
To encourage this model of care, and to build an escape route from the dangers of socialized medicine for patients and doctors, we established The Wedge of Health Freedom, America’s free-trade zone for medical care.
The Wedge, launched in the summer of 2016, is an online directory of direct-pay practices. There are primary care practices, specialists, even a few doctors that come directly to your home. There is no cost for patients or doctors to join The Wedge. It’s part of our non-profit mission and our plan to protect patients and preserve the affordable, ethical practice of medicine (JOINtheWEDGE.com).
The Wedge brings patients and doctors together in an ethical, trusted relationship at an affordable price. Care is patient-friendly, pocketbook-friendly and privacy-friendly. It’s the way medical care always was before government and prepaid health plans intruded, and it’s the way medical care should always be.
The doctor’s office should be a safe place for patients, a trusted and confidential space. But in too many doctors’ offices today, managed care restrictions, government surveillance systems and federal reporting requirements have led to tight-lipped patients and hands-tied doctors.
This must change.
Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF), a non-profit national health freedom organization, launched The Wedge of Health Freedom for two reasons. First, there are doctors and practices operating today that serve their patients free from outsider controls, but most Americans don’t know these affordable, confidential practices exist. Therefore, we wanted to identify these practices and make them visible.
Second, we wanted to establish a nationwide grassroots initiative that would draw the public’s attention to this zone of freedom and free markets, offer these practices as an attractive choice for patients everywhere, encourage doctors to escape into The Wedge, defend the right of “Wedge practices” to operate freely without government interference, and expand The Wedge into an ever-larger slice of the American health care pie—until it’s no longer a wedge, but the entire circle.
The Wedge of Health Freedom has eight simple but important operating principles:
  • Transparent, affordable pricing
  • Freedom to choose
  • True patient privacy
  • No government reporting
  • No outside interference
  • Cash-based pricing
  • Protected patient-doctor relationship
  • All patients welcome
The cost savings can be huge for patients and doctors. Because Wedge practices do not sign health plan contracts or participate in government programs—but they open their doors to all patients, including those in Medicare, Medicaid and managed care—they are exempt from more than 132,000 pages of Medicare regulations, more than 20,000 pages of Obamacare regulations, the onerous electronic health record (EHR) mandate and all the attorneys, billers, coders, data reporters, technical staff and administrative managers associated with these and other regulatory burdens. They can charge less because their overhead is less.
Direct-pay examples abound.
In Minnesota, Orono Family Medicine, which calls itself a Direct Primary Care Practice (DPC), sees established patients for $75 per visit. Minor surgeries cost $100 – $400. PATMOS (“pay at the moment of service”) EmergiClinic has thousands of patients in Tennessee, including Medicaid recipients. Surgeon Dr. Kevin Petersen, who runs NoInsuranceSurgery.com in Las Vegas, Nevada offers $5,000 hernia repairs and uses an outside financing company for those who wish to establish payment plans. He notes on his website: “A health insurance company in no way helps a surgeon provide surgery and for that matter helps no physician take care of their patients.” The renowned Surgery Center of Oklahoma puts its cash-only prices online, which are so low that patients come from around the nation, and Canada, for care.
Nearly 400 practices in 44 states and Canada have already joined The Wedge. (JOINtheWEDGE.com) As the number of Wedge practices grows, and more patients seek them, we hope doctors will realize that it’s possible to escape into freedom and restore the joy they’ve lost in today’s bureaucratic system.
Importantly, the Wedge is focused solely on the delivery of medical care, in a direct-pay model. Coverage is entirely separate. The Wedge puts patients and doctors in a direct relationship, with transparent, affordable prices for medical care and no delays or denials. Government and insurers can no longer interfere in private medical decisions.
We envision future establishment of “Wedge hospitals.” These could include faith-based hospitals free from conscience-violating mandates and the high costs of managed care restrictions and government regulations. When this happens, it will be interesting to see how low hospital costs can go once they are free to simply do the work of a hospital and nothing else.
The Wedge of Health Freedom is a nationwide grassroots initiative to restore the heart of health care in America, regardless of what happens in Congress: whether Obamacare is or isn’t repealed, whether America implements socialized medicine, and no matter what happens to Medicare. The Wedge is an alternative, affordable, confidential patient-centered system outside of government regulations and managed care controls.
Invite your doctors to join The Wedge. It may take them two or three years to actually break free from government and insurers, but now is the time to plant the seeds of freedom in their minds.

Christmas Greetings from HALO

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May the presence of God’s Son, whose coming we await, give us—the HALO family, including you, our readers and supporters—joy in our blessings and consolation in our trials. We, members of the HALO Board of Directors and the Board of Advisors, wish you all a blessed and happy Christmas and New Year.
Julie Grimstad—HALO Board President
WELCOME!
It is with delight that I greet you this Christmas season and welcome you to the HALO family. As we celebrate the birth of our Savior and remember the love, trials and sacrifices of the Holy Family, I give thanks for all you do to defend and befriend the most vulnerable among us. May God bless you and your families and grant you His peace.
Jo Tolck—HALO Board Vice President
To the readers of HALO’s Newsletter:
I want to say, “Wow! Thanks be to God! And Merry, Merry Christmas!” The reason for my exuberance is that I have been around a long time and I am not easily impressed, nor am I the first to jump onto a moving bandwagon, but the HALO bandwagon is on the fast track and the right track. I was motivated to “climb on Board” when I was informed the organization could use a senior citizen (close to the end-of-life) as an advisor. I am truly impressed!
I’ve observed a lot of new charitable organizations, with enthusiastic founder volunteers, starting up to take on the Goliaths of the secular world, only to suffer early setbacks due to almost insurmountable obstacles. The progress was slow and painstaking, often due to the volunteers’ own inexperience, and sometimes because of the lack of a clear-cut MISSION.
Witnessing the expertise and dedication of those who have joined forces to get HALO off the ground, make it operational, and propel it into a life-saving organization so quickly and comprehensively, has been truly remarkable! The HALO volunteers are filling a void and giving the world a much-in-demand Christmas present! Again, Merry. Merry Christmas!
Marlene Reid—Advisor to the Board
May God bless you abundantly in this upcoming year!
Mary Flores—Advisor to the Board
Director of Outreach, Culture of Life Studies Program
Just imagine . . .
God became a helpless human infant who was totally dependent on two people who did not understand Him. May we love and cherish others who are dependent or difficult to understand to the very end. May no one’s death be hastened today, tomorrow or ever.
Sara Buscher, Esq.—Advisor to the Board
In this beautiful season for celebrating the birth of a very special Child, may we all reflect on the tremendous gift of our own life and that of our elderly, disabled, and chronically ill loved ones, and most of all, on what the Christ Child was born to give us: eternal life with God. I wish each of our readers and supporters a most blessed Christmas and New Year!
Stephanie Hopping—Advisor to the Board
The birth of Jesus offers a strong message about the value of all human life from conception to natural death. HALO offers help to protect each person until natural death.
Bill Beckman—Advisor to the Board
Friends of life,
We wish you a most blessed Christmas, hoping that the Christ Child brings you His peace and that the Holy Family continues to inspire you to defend the innocent and the vulnerable. God bless you all.
Judie Brown—Advisor to the Board
In this season of Advent, we remember not only the dignity of the most vulnerable, as Christ was at his birth, but also the fact that we must be ready for when Christ comes again. Let us never forget to receive everyone in our midst with mercy, so we may be received likewise into God’s embrace when we meet him at the completion of time.
George Williamsen–HALO Contributor
At the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, I am looking forward to a short family and spiritual break around the celebration of the birth of Christ.
I anticipate an incredibly difficult new year as the assisted suicide lobby in the US will be introducing bills in at least 20 states. The assisted suicide lobby will also continue working to change the position of the American Medical Association to that of neutrality concerning assisted suicide.
In the New Year the Canadian government will begin to debate the extension of euthanasia to children, to people with psychiatric conditions alone, and to people who previously requested to be killed by lethal injection in their advance directive.
As crazy as the culture of death has become, I am a person of hope. My hope does not derive from human ideology or individual circumstances, but rather in the fact that there is life and hope beyond my mortal existence.
Alex Schadenberg—HALO Board Member
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (alex@epcc.ca)
We both believe that the communications this organization offers are sometimes the resource needed to change hearts and the direction in which end-of-life situations can lead us. May God bless us and give us all the words to help those who need help.
Mary and Mike Schaefer–Advisors to the Board