I think you raise a valid point but, in the interest of helping everyone to decide where we stand on this point, i.e. what do we do, let me offer some counterpoints:
There are three groups of Catholics:
- Those who are outraged by the HHS policy on ABC and are doing what they can to reverse it.
- Those who are outraged by Obamacare (and angry with the bishops for supporting it, in principle).
- Those who are sitting on their hands.
I claim that group 2 is entirely contained within group 1. I challenge you find any member of group 2 who is also a member of group 3.
In other words, I think you are worrying about the wrong people.
So, what do we do? Much of what you suggest falls under the category of seeking a policy change from HHS. Suppose this is successful, suppose that HHS reverses this policy.
What would lead you to believe that this policy reversal would not be reversed again after the election or by a future administration of similar ideology?
It is prudent to conclude that this administration is untrustworthy on this issue. The root problem is Obamacare and the power that it gives to HHS. The correct solution is to uproot Obamacare.
That is a very different task than lobbying the administration to change it’s mind. And implicit in this is that the bishops need to come to terms with the inherent problem of viewing health care as a right.
Not being a politician, I don’t know enough to say how the healthcare plan and what HHS are interrelated. I imagine that they have to be, because HHS is the agency that has to make it work.
If this kind of regulation is a direct product of the healthcare plan, then the plan needs to be either reworked, if it can be salvaged or scrapped and go back to square one.
As for the Church viewing health care differently, I don’t see how differently she can view it. For centuries she has viewed healthcare as a human right. States exist to protect those rights. As to the mechanics of how we provide for the sick, that is something that has to be worked on by everyone, not just the State or the Church. The Church has a great deal of experience to contribute, if the State would listen, instead of piling on regulation after regulation to the point that faith communities can no longer afford to provide healthcare as we once did.
This is not a slam on this administration, because it’s been going on for years, long before this administration came to power. If one stops to think the number of good hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, home health services, and nursing homes run by Catholics, Adventists and Jews for years and years in this country, you would think that different levels of health departments, (federal and state) would find it less expensive to leave these hospitals alone and deal with the insurance companies and frivolous law suits, which is the bigger part of the problem around the world. Some insurance companies micromanage healthcare and some have priced themselves out of reach.
The other problem is that some states have horrible medicaid and medicare services. Instead of competing with insurance companies, a better proposal would be to make Medicaid and Medicare better. When you stop to think that you pay Social Security tax all of your life and then you have to pay a premium to get certain benefits from Medicare or that Medicare is managed by HMOs that don’t always provide good service, it would make more sense for healthcare reform to fix those problems than create additional programs.
I know one state where an unemployed person is not eligible for Medicaid unless he has minor children. If he has college age dependent children, they can only get Medicaid if the child works 20 hours per week. I have always wondered how do these regulations help those families that have lost their jobs in this economy, especially those who are putting kids through college? I don’t see the proposed healthcare plan helping these families. This is what the Church is talking about when she speaks of the right to healthcare. A person who loses his job, because the economy is bad, does not cease to need healthcare for him and his family. Either the government must provide or make regulations that allow for private non profit, such as religious groups, provide for these people.
Regulations such as the one that’s staring at us in the face, make it more difficult, not easier, for charitable organizations to provide healthcare for the poor.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
