The predictions in the following article are not scare tactics, they are reality. Do we really want hospitals to go out of business? Will those hospitals which are in low income areas be able to be sold to profit making organizations or will they be forced to close their doors? Will these mandates improve or degrade care? These are all questions that should be concerning all Americans.
The Obama Mandate that all employers must provide abortions, contraceptives and morning after pills will have devastating results, many of which will be unintended. Even the "compromise" that Obama did with himself will not solve the issue as many of these organizations self-insure therefore making the hospital still pay for the services it finds reprehensible. When will "do-gooders" realize that ObamaCare is an abomination?
Our only hope is that the Supreme Court decides that the law is unconstitutional. Maybe then we can get some rational attempts to solving the actual problems with the health care system rather than throwing out the entire system and starting all over again.
Should the Cardinal be accurate, the system would be degraded severely as something like 20% of all hospitals are Catholic. We cannot afford to lose that much capacity.
Conservative Tom
Cardinal George: Catholic Hospitals Will Be Gone in ‘Two Lents' Under Obamacare Regulation
Cardinal Francis George, Catholic archbishop of Chicago. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com)
– Unless the Obama administration’s mandate that all health insurers offer abortifacient drugs and sterilization is rescinded, Catholic hospitals and health care institutions in the United States will be gone in a couple years, said Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago and former head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
Cardinal George made his prediction in his weekly column for Catholic New World, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
“If you haven’t already purchased the Archdiocesan Directory for 2012, I would suggest you get one as a souvenir,” wrote Cardinal George. “On page L-3, there is a complete list of Catholic hospitals and health care institutions in Cook and Lake counties. Each entry represents much sacrifice on the part of medical personnel, administrators and religious sponsors. Each name signifies the love of Christ to people of all classes and races and religions. Two Lents from now, unless something changes, that page will be blank.”
Under the Obamacare regulation, as finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), all health insurance companies in the United States must offer sterilization, artificial birth control, and abortion-inducing drugs free of charge to whoever may request them. The rule is set to go into effect on Aug. 1 and strictly religious institutions will have one more year to fully comply with the regulation.
Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, all health insurers will have to offer these services and drugs. Individuals or businesses will not have to pay for them directly but the premiums they pay to the insurer, which keep the insurer in business, will indirectly subsidize abortifacient drugs, artificial birth control, and sterilization. These services are contrary to Catholic moral teaching (and the regulation has been denounced by leaders of several other religions and denominations).
Plan B, emergency contraceptive drug. (AP Photo)
As a result, the Catholic Church in the United States is being told that it must give up its health care operations, according to the cardinal. “Catholic hospitals, universities and social services have an institutional conscience, a conscience shaped by Catholic moral and social teaching,” said Cardinal George. “The HHS regulations now before our society will make it impossible for Catholic institutions to follow their conscience.”
He continued: “What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded? A Catholic institution, so far as I can see right now, will have one of four choices: 1) secularize itself, breaking its connection to the church, her moral and social teachings and the oversight of its ministry by the local bishop. This is a form of theft. It means the church will not be permitted to have an institutional voice in public life. 2) Pay exorbitant annual fines to avoid paying for insurance policies that cover abortifacient drugs, artificial contraception and sterilization. This is not economically sustainable. 3) Sell the institution to a non-Catholic group or to a local government. 4) Close down.”
In his column, Cardinal George also argues that the Obamacare regulation would destroy religious liberty as understood and practiced for more than two centuries in the United States by essentially segregating faith to a church building and not allowing people to practice their faith outside their house of worship.
“Liberty of religion is more than freedom of worship,” says the cardinal. “Freedom of worship was guaranteed in the Constitution of the former Soviet Union. You could go to church, if you could find one. The church, however, could do nothing except conduct religious rites in places of worship -- no schools, religious publications, health care institutions, organized charity, ministry for justice and the works of mercy that flow naturally from a living faith. All of these were co-opted by the government. We fought a long cold war to defeat that vision of society.”
Catholics attending Mass. (AP Photo.)
If the Obamacare rule is not rescinded, says Cardinal George, people will not be allowed to hold true to their religious beliefs in all areas of their lives because the federal government would be forcing them (or their employer) to subsidize a product that is in violation of their religious faith – or they can pay a fine.
Under Obamacare, if an employer drops its health insurance plan, it will face financial penalties. An employer with at least 50 employees, for instance, would be fined $2,000 per employee every year for the total number of employees minus 30, resulting in penalties of thousands of dollars.
The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), for example, would face $620,000 in fines per year beginning in 2014, according to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The group says that Colorado Christian University, as another example, would face $500,000 in fines every year.
In conclusion to his column, Cardinal George wrote: “The observance of Lent reminds us that, in the end, we all stand before Christ and give an accounting of our lives. From that perspective, I ask lay Catholics and others of good will to step back and understand what is happening to our country as the church is despoiled of her institutions and as freedom of conscience and of religion become a memory from a happier past. The suffering being imposed on the church and on society now is not a voluntary penance. We should both work and pray to be delivered from it.”
Michael W. Chapman contributed to this report.
This antediluvian Cardinal speaks only for himself, and he is full of --- hot air. Catholic hospitals will not be shutting down. These guys are all hypocrites. They cover up sex scandals when the choice requires standing for what they preach. Besides, nearly all Catholic women have used contraceptives, and if men could get pregnant, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
ReplyDelete--David
David, the article and the Cardinal said there were four choices, only one of which was to close down. However, the other choices will not be good either. Choice one was to change their moral stand, no choice of that. Choice two was to pay fines, not a really financially smart thing to do. Third choice was to sell out and we suppose that would work for suburban hospitals, however, the inner city ones probably could not be sold so they will have to take option four--to close. All in all any choice will hurt health care more.
ReplyDeleteBut the Obama demand was more than about contraceptives etc, it was a trial balloon to see how Americans would react to an attack on one of the pillars of the Constitution--the freedom of religion. It was thought in the White House that there would be some rumblings but that we would all go back to work and this would die out in a couple days. They figured that if they could knock down this part of the Constitution, others would fall easier. It was thought that since it would only effect Catholics and Orthodox institutions, the Protestants would ignore the attack, for the most part.
They were wrong. We saw through their dis-ingeniousness and are still writing about it!
And lastly, it was not about contraceptives--that is the straw man they have constructed. It was about a religion NOT being able to follow its teachings. If they succeed in their little experiment, any pillar of the Constitution is vulnerable.