If you want another reason to be against Obamacare, consider the debate over whether the Catholic church should be forced to buy birth control for its employees.
Official Catholic doctrine is that the use of artificial birth control is a sin, a position I disagree with. Most Catholics disagree, too. But that doesn't matter. It's still the position of the church. Most Baptists have had a drink or two, but that doesn't mean the government should be allowed to force the sale of beer in Baptist churches.
The new government regulations will require all health insurance programs, including those of the Catholic church, to provide free birth control pills with so much as a co-pay. Not only is the government trampling on religious freedom, but they are depriving all of us of our financial freedom as well.
Birth control pills certainly cost money, anywhere from $20 to $50 per month. I'm sure one can spend more, and will once these are completely covered by insurance. I've found that when doctors know I'm covered, they only write prescriptions for the most expensive medicines.
Some women forget to take their birth control pills, and after a while realize it's not worth buying them if they aren't going to use them. So they use another method of birth control. No need to throw money away! Does anyone think that these women will make the same decision when its other people's money being wasted?
If you look at what the government is doing with health insurance, it is requiring employers and insurers to provide all sorts of coverage at "no cost" to consumers. Of course, these costs must be paid, and the only way to pay them is to raise insurance rates on everyone.
The whole purpose of insurance is to help us handle life's unexpected expenses. Birth control pills, which a woman will take every month for years, can hardly be called an unexpected expense. Would it make sense to require auto insurers to cover the cost of gasoline? Of course not! Everybody knows they need to buy gas, so let them buy their own instead of shifting the cost to their neighbors. It's the same with birth control pills.
I'm not saying insurance companies should be prohibited from covering birth control pills. I'm just saying it should be the employer's choice.
The Obama plan, which requires all employers, including churches, to hand out free pills without even a co-pay is not just an assault on religious freedom; it's an assault on economic good sense that undermines our health care system.
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Churches are exempt, Colonel. Put some links in to back up statements that the government is forcing "churches" to do this. I don't think that you will find any because churches are exempt. And, sorry, insurance is for more than just unexpected events. It's also for pooling resources for expected events as well. And be sure to point out to your readers the legislation that REPUBLICAN party members introduced in 2001 attempting to do something very similar.
I consider Catholic Charities and schools an extension of the "church," and these will not be exempt.
Insurance should not, as a general rule, be for pooling resources for expected expenses.
We all know we are going to want something to drink for lunch. I consider it a "right." We can all go out and just get what we want, from water to champagne, or we can "pool" our resources, hire a bunch of people to administer the program, and then have our lunch drink prescribed for us. Of course we'll all be drinking Cristal champagne because we don't have to pay for it. But in fact, we do end up paying for it, just with no way to lower our costs by modifying our behavior.
As for the six Republicans who sponsored the legislation you cite, Snow and Collins are the most liberal Republicans by far, Specter was so far left he went Democrat, and the others are liberals who I think are gone today and would lose if they were still around.
The fact that some idiot Republican made some asinine proposal 10 years doesn't make it a good idea. It was defeated back then for a reason.
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