Lesson #283 on how "free" really isn't free

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Strangely enough, insurance providers not too jazzed on the contraceptive mandate.

One of two chimeras worked into the contraceptive "compromise"/"revision" by the Obama aministration a couple of weeks ago was that Catholic employers would not have to pay directly for the subject contraceptives or abortifacients and that cost would be covered by the insurance companies (the other being that the Catholic employers could strike that specific policy language from the policy... but they'd be forced to provide it anyway. No, really. This is what passes for legislative and policy logic with these people).


Insurance providers, as you might imagine, we're rather puzzled by this turn of events.

The insurance industry is concerned it will take a hit from the Obama administration’s mandate that they provide birth control in health plans for employees of religious organizations that object to the coverage.

Publicly, the health insurance industry has avoided getting involved in the fight.

But in private, the industry is dubious of the administration’s argument that the insurance industry wouldn't take a hit because birth control is cheaper than unwanted pregnancies.
The trade group America's Health Insurance Plans has limited its comments to saying it worries about the "precedent" the mandate would set. The concern is that the government could eventually require health plans to cover any number of preventive services – even prescription drugs - without copays or deductibles, under the theory that they save money in the long-term.

When the text of ObamaCare has over 700 instances of "The Secretary (of Health and Human Services) "may" or "shall", insurance providers have every reason to worry about arbitrary mandate shenanigans in the future.

They would also like to remind everyone that "free" really isn't free.

Privately, however, insurers say there's nothing "free" about preventing unwarranted pregnancies. They say the mandate also covers costly surgical sterilization procedures, and that in any case even the pill has up-front costs.

"Saying it's revenue-neutral doesn't mean it's free and that you're not paying for it," an industry source told The Hill.

Doctors still have to be paid to prescribe the pill, drugmakers and pharmacists have to be paid to provide it - and all that money has to come from insurance premiums, not future hypothetical savings, the source said.

This notion of long-range savings from the prevention of unwanted pregnancies doesn't really do the insurance companies any good as they are expected to balance their sheets and turn a profit this year.



So, if in the "revision", Catholic employers/employees are freed the burden from paying for this, who is going to pay for it?

It's not clear how those costs would be passed on. The regulation bars the health insurance plans from raising the religiously-affiliated employers' premiums, so it's possible workers at companies that directly offer contraceptive coverage would get stuck with higher premiums to make up the lost revenue.

Excellent. Paying for someone else, not even covered under the same policy, to have sex.


For a bill that wasn't even read, stand by for a continuing stream of absolutely non-sensical and confounding "revisions" and "compromises".

And it is duly noted that the only time the statist-left becomes interested in cost-savings, they are talking condoms and the pill.




We leave you this evening with the Master, talkin' about "free":

"No doubt we could go on forever..."

No, actually since Friedman laid waste to that smug professor's notion of "free", we can all go home now.

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Quickies

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A round-up of news items, columns, articles and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.





Of course, he did:

Sean Stone, son of American Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, said on Wednesday that Islam is the religion of justice and equality.

'Unfortunately, those displaying grievances over the injustice imposed by the capitalist and liberal governing system in the worldwide Occupy protests are not aware that they would not achieve their goals in the absence divine religions and Islam as well,' Sean said.

Not to mention being the religion of stonings, honor killings and genital mutilation. So, yeah, maybe Islam and Occupy is a good fit.







Did the Catholic Church paint themselves into a corner with respect to the contraceptives controversy?

Here is what Cardinal Bernardin said in the Gannon Lecture at Fordham University that he delivered in 1983:

Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless, the undocumented immigrant and the unemployed worker.

When you start equating the rights of the unborn to clothing the homeless, you start backing yourself into some morally untenable situations.

Selling out to social justice will do that for you. Go ahead and read the whole excellent piece at Ricochet.






Is it really for the kids? We start watching our backside whenever we hear about legislation couched in that manner.

Leslie at Temple of Mut wonders why her children and church are being weaponized against her.






Here's B-Daddy on the Greek debt crisis:

But let's also be clear about the game being played by the rest of the EU. An anonymous commenter previously posted that it is not really that big a deal if the Greeks default, the worry is the example set and the impact to banks. Much of the worry has been about the spread of bank failure if Greek default causes Italian and Spanish bond yields to rise. Once again, too big to fail leads to irrational economic policy. No one wants to learn this lesson, not the U.S. and not the Europeans. Heck even the Chinese prop up their banks with enforced savings and below market interest rates for the working stiff. So instead of too big to fail, why don't we require ever increasing capital reserve requirements as banks become larger? That would make it harder for big banks to leverage access to cheap capital from the Fed to make easy money, but that should be their problem.

No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't be mistaken if you sensed a complete lack of seriousness, worldwide, when it comes to making hard decisions with respect to sovereign debt. It's 10 PM, the final exam is tomorrow but everbody in the dorm is munching out on Hot Pockets and playing Mortal Combat.





W.C. Varones on a potential leading economic indicator: runs on safe deposit boxes.





Fed up with the current state of the GOP primaries, Sarah B. wonders: Gov. McDonnell, Where For Art Thou?

For you Romney fans out there, the Governor of Virginia does indeed have great hair.







Here's Sir Charles of Doo Doo Economics on that post-constitutional notion of "freedom":

This is why the wisdom of America's founders is so profound. We are supposed to be a society where people on their unique paths are free to join or separate in the pursuit of happiness. Even if you take a dead end job, you have the opportunity to become your own boss through individual effort. Unions, governments and other tyrants should not control the fate of you, your property or your hopes and dreams.

We are here for a fleeting moment in time. Forge your own path or join with us who wish to ensure future liberty. Whatever you decide, do not give up, do not surrender, and do not lose your dreams. Andy Whitfield pursued his happiness and contributed to freedom, so can you.

After a months-long absence Secular Apostate is back. Check out his most excellent blog at the link.




OK, gang. That's probably it for today. We hope to enjoy the remainder of our 3-day weekend so we'll most likely give the staff the rest of the day off and see everybody tomorrow.

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Hey, tea partiers....

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... you wanted a scrap for social issues? Well, have at it.

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But first, when you lose Chris Matthews...

Here's "Tingles" opining on the regime's decision to force Catholic employers to cover, free of charge, contraceptive devices in their health care plans for their employees:

Matthews didn't seem sure how to broach the subject. Talking to E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and Susan Milligan of U.S. News and World Reports, he warned, "It gets to that interesting point to me, which is frightening, when the state tells the church what to do."

Matthews took the Obama administration's decision to its logical conclusion: "If they start financing, under the law, what they are called to do, do they have any more credibility on the issue of birth control or anything else?"

Matthews as a Catholic, is more concerned with the Church's credibility than we are. What we are concerned with, however is, if the state can force you to sign up for health insurance and they can force employers into policy which violates their religious beliefs, what can't they do?

That battle cry of "Keep your laws off my body" from years past has now fallen strangely silent from the lips of shamelessly hypocritical liberals whom we now can only assume used the term "choice" as a false front for the singular purpose of the unfettered right to abortion on demand.

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Modern liberalism: all the courage of conviction of a zombified runway model

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But help may be on the way. As much as they have cheezed us off over the years, the ACLU has still managed to find its way to our side of an issue from time to time and certainly with respect to the federal government violating religious conscience, this outfit would see its way to defending the oppressed.

Let's see what they have to say on the matter:

The American Civil Liberty Union announced today that President Obama's decision to mandate coverage for birth control does not violate religious liberty.

The ACLU's Alicia Gay warns that the "powerful lobbying arm of the Catholic Church" mistakenly claims that the HHS contraception mandate violates their religious liberty.

Individuals who choose not to pay for employees' contraceptives, the ACLU counters, are forcing their beliefs on their employees.

"The fundamental promise of religious liberty in this country doesn’t create a right to impose those views on others, including ignoring civil rights laws or denying critical health care," Gay insists.

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Wait, what?




How in god's name is choosing not to cover contraceptives in one's healthcare plan forcing a belief? We were unaware that employees covered by Catholic healthcare plans were unable to obtain contraceptives outside those same plans.


Congratulations, ACLU. Never more will we even attempt to give you the benefit of the doubt in such matters as religious freedom and violation of conscience: wholly unprincipled tools of the state is all you are.

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And for those many Catholic organizations that jumped in bed with the Obama administration back in 2009 and '10 when ObamaCare was being ground out: how does that 8 AM walk of shame feel now?

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Hey, someone had a good time.

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What will they force you to do?

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Do you remember when the President told us that if we liked our current health care plan, we could keep it? Well, you could keep it unless you are a Catholic.




The following is the entire text of a letter issued by U.S. Catholic bishops voicing their objections to what they feel are the conscience-violating provisions of ObamaCare and which according to Gateway Pundit was read in churches across the country on Sunday:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to liberty for all citizens of any faith. The federal government, which claims to be “of, by, and for the people,” has just been dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people — the Catholic population — and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees’ health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those “services” in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.

In so ruling, the Obama Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Obama Administration’s sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.

We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

And therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I would also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience,to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Obama Administration’s decision.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
+Alexander K. Sample
Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample
Bishop of Marquette

(emphasis, ours)




We blogged about this last week, here. We're not letting this go as this represents perfectly how ObamaCare isn't about providing better health care to more Americans but rather it's about control and power. What better way to flex authoritarian muscle than by trampling over a group's religious beliefs and tenents. To wit, we were heretofore unaware that the contraceptives Catholic employers will now be forced to provide their employees were so inaccessible.

And it matters not whether you are a person of faith... If you are a person of freedom this should chap your hide and compel you to question whether or not your government takes the 1st amendment seriously and what it is they will force you to do that would violate your conscience. It's only a matter of time

We stand in solidarity with the Catholic church against this assault on religious freedom and their stand against these egregious provisions in ObamaCare.

Sarah sez (UPDATED)

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(scroll down to bottom of post for update)

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What better way to renew blogging activities than with a BwD favorite, Sarah sez.

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One in a series that takes a look at some of the wild, zany and madcap things said by the former governor of Alaska.




Recently, Palin was asked her opinion of provisions within ObamaCare that would force health insurance providers to cover cover birth control, contraception and drugs that could cause abortions. This, of course, would be in conflict of the tenants of many faith-based providers.

“Those who dispute that characterization “may not like the language,’’ she said, “but the truth is what I said. I’m a devout Catholic and I honor my faith and love it . . . but they have this conscience thing” that “insists put women at physical risk, although Catholic providers strongly disagree.”

(italics, ours)


Damn those Catholics are their dammed consciences!

As Allah Pundit put it, perhaps Palin's just jealous they possess something she doesn't.


What's that you say? That wasn't Palin spewing that drivel?

But, of course, it was that Sarah sez stalwart, that glittering jewel of colossal ignorance, the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi. She never fails to disappoint!

Two things: 1) How many faith-based insurance providers including those possessing Catholic-centric, pro-life sensibilities will drop coverage altogether rather than violate beliefs at the core of their faith? That doesn't sound like a recipe for keeping your insurance if you like it, now does it? And 2) precisely how does mandating additional coverage bend the health care cost downward as promised by the proponents of ObamaCare?




ObamaCare is so god-awfully corrupt, contemptible and counter-productive on so many different levels and in so many different degrees, we will get fall down drunk in righteous villification, err, vindication on the day it is either repealed or shot down by the Supreme Court.



UPDATE #1: Since we're stuck with it for the time being, and instead of just bitching and whining about it, why not be constructive and try to improve on it, is our thought, right? With that in mind, we liberated KT's recommendation from the comment section:

Parts of ObamaCare could be made really green by collaborating with the EPA and the Department of the Interior. Imagine how we could nourish the ecosystem in the wilderness by spreading the puree of millions of vivisected babies around our National Park System every year!

That's some of the can-do spirit that made this country great. Thanks, KT!

NYC: Fluoridate at your own peril.

New York City tap water is said to be the responsible ingredient for the Big Apple's world-renowned bagels and pizza. Some folks believe, however, there is perhaps a higher calling for this particular Bronx H2O.

Story here.