SaddleBrooke Republican Club » Health care

Voices of Opposition Speak Out Against Obama’s Contraception Mandate ‘Accommodation’

Mike Brownfield — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:33:36 +0000

“Simply unacceptable.” That’s the near-unanimous response to President Obama’s supposed “accommodation” offered to those who objected to Obamacare’s mandate that religious institutions pay for contraceptive products and services—including abortion-inducing drugs. That mandate — which tramples heavily on religious liberties — drew tremendous fire across the board, from Christians and Jews alike, drowning the President in a political maelstrom of his own design. And though today the President sought to calm that storm with a “compromise,” the voices of opposition are as strong as ever because, quite simply, it doesn’t remedy the moral and religious … More

Conscience “Accommodation” Doesn’t Address Underlying Problem

Ryan Messmore — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:30:52 +0000

On Friday, President Obama announced an “accommodation” to the Health and Human Services (HHS) contraceptive mandate: Rather than requiring religious organizations that provide group health insurance to cover sterilization, contraception, and some abortion-inducing drugs, those religious organizations will now likely pay higher premiums to insurance companies who will provide these “free services” to employees. This accommodation doesn’t remedy the religious liberty problem. But no partial change to the HHS regulations alters the fact that, within Obamacare, health insurance decisions are dictated by the federal government rather than by individuals and … More

Rep. Price: Obama’s Contraception ‘Accommodation’ is ‘All Rhetoric’

Lachlan Markay — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:17:39 +0000

The chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee blasted the president’s self-styled “accommodation” of religious employers required under the Obamacare law to provide contraceptive services to employees in apparent violation of the Constititoin’s protection of religious liberty. “Under the President’s proposal,” explained Heritage’s Jennifer Marshall, “employers and employees will still bear the cost of paying for coverage of contraception, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization because insurance companies will simply pass on the cost of this ‘free’ service with higher premiums to the employer.” “It’s very chilling and very dangerous,” Rep. Tom Price … More

Obama’s Political Prophylactic

Roger Pilon — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:46:52 +0000

By Roger Pilon

“White House compromise still guarantees contraceptive coverage for women,” reads the Washington Post headline coming out of President Obama’s press conference this afternoon. Trying to tamp down the escalating political storm his administration created three weeks ago when it ruled that, under Obamacare, employers with religious objections to providing contraceptive and abortifacient coverage must do [...]

Obama’s Political Prophylactic is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

President Obama’s Unworkable Non-Solution on Conscience

Edmund Haislmaier — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:19:42 +0000

Today, President Obama unsuccessfully attempted to extricate himself from a political crisis of his own making. The issue is Obamacare’s requirement that health insurers and employer-sponsored health plans cover federally mandated “preventive services” in their benefit packages—with no co-pays for enrollees—and the Administration’s subsequent regulatory requirement that those mandated preventive services include contraceptive products and services—including abortion-inducing drugs. The “compromise” the President announced today is that contraception coverage “will be offered to women by their employers’ insurance companies directly, with no role for religious employers who oppose contraception. Insurance companies … More

Heritage Reacts to White House “Accommodation” to Religious Liberty

Jennifer Marshall — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:14:12 +0000

After two weeks of increasingly intense criticism over Obamacare’s disregard for religious liberty, the White House woke up this morning in a mood to “accommodate” its critics. Perhaps White House officials should have signaled that to Senate Democrats yesterday before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blocked an amendment sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) to preserve faith-based groups’ religious liberty and not force them to take actions contrary to their beliefs and teachings. Instead, the White House maintains its goal-overriding objections of conscience to mandate insurance coverage for birth control, … More

Under ObamaCare, Anti-Discrimination Law Trumps Religious Liberty

Roger Pilon — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:42:31 +0000

By Roger Pilon

The three-week battle over ObamaCare’s contraceptive-abortifacient ruling isn’t letting up. Catholics for Choice has a full-page ad in this morning’s Washington Post, urging the president to stay firm. And it’s the lead story today on NPR’s Morning Edition, which in printed form devotes fully 2 of 16 paragraphs—the last 2—to the other side (not bad for [...]

Under ObamaCare, Anti-Discrimination Law Trumps Religious Liberty is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Obamacare Challenge Not Barred By a Weird Technicality

Ilya Shapiro — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:28:45 +0000

By Ilya Shapiro

Cato’s third Supreme Court brief in the Obamacare litigation concerns the issue of whether the federal tax Anti-Injunction Act prevents federal courts from timely reviewing Congress’s most egregious attempt to exceed its power to regulate interstate commerce. The AIA bars courts from enjoining “any tax” before that tax is assessed or collected. One would think [...]

Obamacare Challenge Not Barred By a Weird Technicality is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Cochrane on ObamaCare’s Contraceptive-Coverage Mandate

Michael F. Cannon — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:23:26 +0000

By Michael F. Cannon

My Cato colleague John Cochrane – who is way smarter than I am — has a generally excellent op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal on ObamaCare’s contraception mandate: Salting mandated health insurance with birth control is exactly the same as a tax—on employers, on Catholics, on gay men and women, on couples trying to have children and [...]

Cochrane on ObamaCare’s Contraceptive-Coverage Mandate is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Obama Gets Hit with Another Religious Freedom Lawsuit

Thomas Messner — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:20:19 +0000

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has already filed two lawsuits challenging the Obamacare regulation that requires many religious employers to provide health insurance coverage for sterilization, contraception, and what many people believe are abortion-inducing drugs. Those lawsuits are on behalf of Belmont Abbey College (a Benedictine Catholic college in North Carolina) and Colorado Christian University (a nondenominational Christian university in Colorado). This morning, the Becket Fund sued the Obama Administration again, this time on behalf of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network that was started nearly … More