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Wednesday, December 19. 2012Obama Vs. Little Sisters of the PoorDuring college I worked at Jack Frost Dry Goods, a fabric and yarn store in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The owner contributed extra cloth to the Little Sisters of the Poor in the nearby Bushwick neighborhood. My uncle had owned a nursing home in the Bronx when I was much younger than that, and the Little Sisters facility and care was superior. The Little Sisters of the Poor are another example of religious based charitable organizations whose scruples and finances would be violated by Obamacare's requirement that it provide medical insurance that includes contraception and medical treatments that cause sterility or can cause abortions. Aside from its 300 sisters working in their facilities, non-users but still charged for the increased premium, the Little Sisters hires without regard to religion and cares for people without regard to religion. So, according to Obamacare, the Little Sisters of the Poor does not qualify for exemption. Operating on the principles that are inherent in their religion and such work for the poor and operating on very thin margins, Medicaid providing half the costs of quality care, the Little Sisters of the Poor may have to cease operations in the United States. As the Daily Caller reports from Sister Constance Carolyn Veit:
As a Jew, and as an American, I find outrageous this destructive intrusion into overriding faith and good works. Congress has not corrected this, but the courts may yet:
Posted by Bruce Kesler
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The Order's spokesperson said this afternoon that they could not do as the new law demands, and, that since they operate at the margin, according to what they can afford, the millions of dollars in fines coming will have to come out of services to the poor --or, they will have to leave the USA. One or the other, she seemed to be saying.
Obamacare seems to be keeping lawyers pretty busy and many businesses are having to spend to figure it out how to comply. It has truly been a disaster and will continue to be one until it's repealed.
The Obamacare "mandates" are absurd on their face and exemplify how Obama has prioritized the politicization of health insurance coverage over the goal of expanding access to health insurance. This is a matter of basic macroeconomics. If you force health insurers to provide contraception for "free" (ie., no co-pay), the price for health insurance (premiums) will go up. Higher priced health insurance means fewer people will be able to afford it. The mandates directly contradict the purported overall goal of Obamacare.
The mandates address a problem that did not exist. There was no problem with affordability of contraception before the mandates. $10 co-pays or even $30 out-of-pocket expenses have not historically precluded people from paying for their own contraception. The problem was and remains that health insurance costs too much. These mandates worsen the real problem. The attack on the Church adds insult to injury. As our very social justice oriented Bishop (he is a somewhat controversial advocate for the homeless) pointed out, this is the proverbial camel's nose inside the tent. The contraception mandate is designed to test HHS authority so that sometime soon HHS can mandate that all employers, including the Church, must pay for abortions. Say what you will about abortion "rights," even the most cynical anti-religion zealot will have to concede that the Church should not be forced to pay directly for abortions. In sum, the Obama hypocrites say that they are trying to expand the availability of health insurance coverage, and then they spend the next three years working on schemes to force the most ardent pro-life supporters to pay for abortions. In the meantime, my premiums are going up and my carrier is dropping my preferred doctors and hospitals from its network. You go, Sisters. The Little Sisters of the Poor have always been a moxie group. Their gutsy sports teams prove it. They will play anybody, as their non-conference games against SEC and Big Ten teams have established for decades. And against the Obama administration, the LSOTP are favorites! "The attack on the Church adds insult to injury. As our very social justice oriented Bishop (he is a somewhat controversial advocate for the homeless) pointed out, this is the proverbial camel's nose inside the tent. The contraception mandate is designed to test HHS authority so that sometime soon HHS can mandate that all employers, including the Church, must pay for abortions. Say what you will about abortion "rights," even the most cynical anti-religion zealot will have to concede that the Church should not be forced to pay directly for abortions."
And when I see Kathleen Sebelius standing beside Obama as part of a unified team it makes me so angry. It's bad enough when my Church is attacked from without - I expect it. It's sickening when the attack is launched by someone within. The scandal of Sebelius and Pelosi is beyond the pale. "Beyond the pale" --a pale being a stick staked into the ground (palisade, llano estacado), outside of which, no villager with any standing in the village will dwell. Yep, 'beyond the pale' they are, alright.
The question is why is it so important to Sebellius and Pelosi, and Obama, that the Church and her followers pay for abortions? They (the Democrats) said that all they wanted was for abortion to be "safe legal and rare." Well, abortion is legal and has been legal in all 50 states for decades. Nothing, not even the overturning of Roe v Wade, is going to change that in the vast majority of states. What is this obsession with abortion really about? I am genuinely flabbergasted because they already have what they supposedly want.
"What is this obsession with abortion really about? I am genuinely flabbergasted because they already have what they supposedly want."
Here are some reasons for the obsession: 1. Abortion is now a militant secularist sacrament. 2. It's all about control. In the bizarro universe inhabited by Obama and Sibelius, it's not enough to silence your enemies. No, you have to make them THINK like you as well. And those who dissent must be punished. I think we're nearing the day when religious denominations, particularly the Catholic Church, will have to stand together as they did against "Aktion T4": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_T4 United action would put the Obama Administration in a lose-lose situation: if Sibelius (aka "Reich Health Minister") tries to crush dissent, it'll be a cosmic scale PR disaster. If she folds, it will embolden others to also take their shots at ObamaCare. |
Tracked: Dec 19, 18:21
Tracked: Dec 19, 18:21
Tracked: Dec 19, 18:21
Tracked: Dec 19, 18:21
Tracked: Dec 19, 18:21