The decision to require employers to provide contraceptives or sterilization, as part of government mandated health insurance and specifically single these out as exempt from co-pays or deductibles runs counter to our political and cultural traditions. There is a significant difference between recognizing a woman's "right" to choose and making it the "obligation" of others to pay for or facilitate that choice. We have a right to make many private decisions: drink alcohol, smoke, watch pornography, eat snack food, or engage in any number of practices not universally advocated or supported. We don't have an obligation to subsidize or provide them.
Many individuals and institutions do not see these as issues of "health" and have personal religious or cultural scruples regarding artificial interference in the process of conception or termination of a pregnancy. Whether you agree with them or not, they certainly have tradition on their side. The Catholic Church, for example, is nearly 2000 years old and has a long, well documented, and consistent position on the morality of these practices. Abortion was a criminal act in our own country until late in the last century. That it is now recognized as a fundamental right (subject to certain restrictions) is a matter of constitutional law and Americans are required to enforce and protect that right -- but not pay for or encourage it. These too are matters of choice.
Reproductive rights are obviously contentious and highly emotional issues. So strongly held are beliefs on both sides that it is difficult to have any civilized discussion on the subject. In the case of abortion there would appear to be no moral middle ground between those at one extreme who contend that it is murder of an innocent and those at another who see it solely as a matter of a woman's right to control her own body without restrictions. All can agree it is not a happy subject. In most cases it is a wrenching decision for a woman, making it all the more important that she be able to assure herself of the availability of professional and discrete care. It can be equally wrenching, however, for those who see it as a crime against humanity. Since we must co-exist in this country and indeed cooperate across a broad spectrum of public issues, we would do well to recognize and respect the legitimacy of our differences in this area.
Our constitution was founded on the principal that the individual is the fundamental political unit. As Abraham Lincoln so eloquently stated we were conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition of equality. Freedom of choice is freedom to get it right or wrong according to our own values. We neither have the right to impose our values on each other or force others to take actions against the dictates of their conscience.
Al Checchi is chairman of Join Together America, the former chairman of Northwest Airlines, and a former candidate for Governor of California. His new book is The Change Maker.
Follow Al Checchi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Al_Checchi
And in some cases, the employees may very well pay their own insurance premiums.
It's shocking that they sit there and act like they're the one paying the wages & insurance premiums out of CHURCH money.
Oh, wait, it isn't shocking at all. Me bad.
But we all know it's not about 'the babies'. As do well over 90% of Catholic women who have taken the pill in their lives to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
The Catholic Church receives over $3 billion in federal taxpayer money. Their faith gives them no right to use taxpayer money to discriminate against taxpayers. If it's such a problem for them, they have the option of refusing the money and getting out of the health care business.
The CC has no problem covering ED drugs for men, last time I checked not being able to get an erection isn't life threatening; yes it's a medical condition and quality of life issue but then again so is pregnancy.
The Bible also says that it's OK to keep slaves as long as they aren't Jews and a woman who isn't a virgin at the time she marries should be executed. Two of dozens mandates in the Bible the Catholic Church no longer feels the need to enforce. So why are just the gay hating and forced pregnancy mandates still so precious to the CC and other religious sects?
That was certainly prudent of you.
'I didn't have extra expenses associated with my transplant or cancer care after it occurred other than seeing the doctor twice a year. Normal premiums would have covered that.'
That fact may have saved your life.
'Pretty much everyone gets sick eventuallyÂ, what you do is have a large enough pool to cover your expenses.'
Or at least have as large a pool of resources as possible.
'If you say everybody can only get one sickness than they can't work because their employer can't insure them you will see bigger problems than the Healthcare Act tried to help. '
I think (or at least hope) that if I became sick enough to exhaust every revenue source morally avaliable to me, I would reserve enough for palliative care at the end. I suspect there's nothing like an adequate supply of morphine to ease one's journey down the six-foot-deep hole.
I don't know that the problems will be bigger than otherwise. Healthcare Act or no, everyone has to die sometime. Why kick up a big fuss about it---you know it's going to happen sooner or later anyway.
And, for those who see abortion as "a crime against humanity" they should note that their position is not grounded in fact. Reproductive health for women is not a crime against humanity but refusing to provide access to birth control when the world population is at 7 billion & rapidly growing could be considered a crime against humanity especially once we have so many people that we can't feed them all & we are all suffering from plagues & starvation. A person can believe abortion is a crime against humanity but it just isn't so.
The Catlick "church" can sell off some of it's gold, jewels and property.