The Wake of the HHS Mandate

We're coming upon about a month since the HHS Mandate announcement that has rocked the Catholic world. Lawsuits from across the country have been filed and our Bishops have spoken. See what they have to say here.

Over the last few weeks, and on more than one occasion, I've heard a number of people around my diocese in discussions regarding the HHS Mandate and the subsequent insult compromise by the White House make a rather disturbing statement. It goes something like this: "I understand the Bishops' position, and I applaud their defense of the 1st amendment; but isn't this really an issue about religion. The decision has been made, the government should deal with matters pertaining to health care, and we're free to agree or disagree."


First let's tackle the obvious. If a person says "I am Catholic" but disagrees with Catholic teaching, are they really Catholic? The answer is simply, NO. To claim the Catholic faith as your own means you believe and accept ALL of her doctrines. It's not a smorgasbord, and the pertinant commandment is "Thou shall not kill." There's no black and white here. Abortion and birth control are both immoral. We are not, therefore, free to disagree.

Next we'll tackle the not-so-obvious. To institute a nationwide program that provides Americans with taxpayer- and insurance-funded resources premiums that allow them to kill is simply a violation of our faith. I believe everyone understands this point, yet still claims that there is freedom to disagree.

Not so.

A disagreement on a moral issue for which I have no tangible recourse is not "freedom to disagree". In other words, if I disagree with this issue, I can't just simply "opt out" and not pay. I MUST PAY ANYWAY, or suffer the consequences. That's right, if I disagree, I can't do diddly about it. I can say it over and over, I can write my congressmen, I can shout it from the mountaintop. It won't matter, though, because in the end, the money that I earn and for which I should have the freedom to spend wherever I choose will be taken from me and used to pay for something to which I am morally opposed.


Consider this excerpt from our Bishop's letter to our diocese on the mandate dated January 31, 2012:

"...the mandate will allow a Catholic institution one of three options: 1) violate its beliefs by
providing coverage for medications and procedures we believe are immoral; 2) cease providing health care
insurance for all of their employees and face ongoing and ultimately ruinous fines; or 3) attempt to qualify for
the exemption by hiring and serving only Catholics."

Is this your idea of freedom? Pay or suffer consequences regardless your beliefs?

What's next, armbands and ghettos?

Think about it. This is a critical juncture for faithful Catholics, and this issue--this PROBLEM--is not going to just go away easily.

Insurance Health Assessment Going Too Far?

For a 50% reduction in our health insurance payroll deduction, our insurance carrier is offering all of its participants employed by my company a health assessment and wellness program.

The program requires annual check-ups and blood screenings, along with the completion of an online questionaire which generates a wellness report containing an overall look at your physical health and some general health advice.

I have some troubling feelings about this program. In theory it's a good idea to offer an incentive to get people to the doctor. Too many people, including me, wait until there's something wrong before darkening a doctor's doorstep. This program got me to a doctor for the first time in years.

What don't I like? Well, there's this questionnaire that we're required to fill out. I'm required to provide the results of my blood screen and checkup. I'm not comfortable with a third party having access to my personal health information, particularly my medical insurance provider.

More importantly, I didn't expect to be asked the following questions on the assessment, even after I indicated that I was married:

1. Are you sexually active?
2. How many sex partners have you had in the last 5 years?
3. Do you use birth control?

Aside from the fact that the results didn't discuss anything related to any of these points, these are the kinds of issues for your confessor and your physician, NOT YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY. How, exactly, does wedging itself like this into my marriage help my health?  I was not the only person offended by these questions.

We all know how insurance companies operate. They determine what health care you will get by determining what they will or will not pay; and thanks to ObamaCare they have a green light from our government, since every American will be required to carry medical insurance by 2014.

It all stinks of socialism.

Recently I was sent an article titled "What the Popes Really Say About Socialism" by the folks over at  America Needs Fatima. It's great stuff, take a look at it when you have a few minutes. While I was filling out the questionnaire it was Pope Leo XIII's quote that rang a bell. The excerpt that follows is directly from his encyclical titled Quod Apostolici Muneris:

(Socialists) debase the natural union of man and woman, which is held sacred even among barbarous peoples; and its bond, by which the family is chiefly held together, they weaken, or even deliver up to lust. Lured, in fine, by the greed of present goods, which is "the root of all evils, which some coveting have erred from the faith," they assail the right of property sanctioned by natural law; and by a scheme of horrible wickedness, while they seem desirous of caring for the needs and satisfying the desires of all men, they strive to seize and hold in common whatever has been acquired either by title of lawful inheritance, or by labor of brain and hands, or by thrift in one's mode of life.

Some "benefits", eh?  Eddie-Ray, we will be having a talk about all this.