Health Care Law – Does it Discriminate? (PB)

“RELIGIOUS WAIVER” RELEASES SOME FROM HEALTH CARE MANDATE, BUT NOT ALL

by Nick Purpura, blogging at Conservative News and Views

(Aug. 7, 2012) — The health care law has been in the news ever since Obama’s 2008 campaign. Of course this wasn’t the first attempt at government-run health care. Hillary Clinton’s attempt in the 1990s failed to gain public support, and her politically savvy husband ultimately abandoned any idea of a health care law. It is hard to say whether or not the man now occupying the White House is politically savvy. So much of what he has done is contrary to the public’s will. This behavior has left us with puzzling observations and many legitimate questions about his motives.

Incompetent or power-hungry?

Some speculate that he’s just not that smart. Others contend that he has been immensely successful in achieving his goal to either destroy this Republic or “change” into an unrecognizable socialistic state. Of course his power grabs and public statements leave us no doubt that he has little regard for the US Constitution and much prefers international law to our Rule of Law here in the states. Let’s not forget that he has told the world that we are not a Christian nation, nor celebrated our national day of prayer. But he has celebrated Ramadan and has stated that the sound of Muslim prayers is the most beautiful sound in the world. We should also not forget that he has not been able to find an acceptable Christian church in the entire beltway to attend.

Any man or woman living in these United States is entitled to worship as they please. That is not the point of this discussion. Bias and discrimination are.

Health care law and religion

How does all of this relate to health care? The answer is that it might more than anyone imagined.

If you compare his background and his statements to his actions, I believe it is fair to say that Barack Hussein Obama is most likely either a Muslim or at least sympathizes more with the Muslim religion than the Christian religion. Again, it is important to state loud and clear that in a country that protects our right to worship as we please, his choice of religion is not the issue. Furthermore, if you are going to ask about discrimination, you should at least ask what the person you are accusing of discrimination believes. That is why logic dictates that these anomalies between what he says he believes and what he states in various venues become part of the assessment.

Given all the above, the point I would like to draw to everyone’s attention in the health care bill is the violation of Catholic organizations’ right to believe whatever they wish and their right to exercise that belief. Our Founders understood that to keep their right to worship freely, they had to protect everyone’s right to worship freely. That is a principle firmly protected in our First Amendment. The power-grabbing man who now occupies our White House apparently does not appreciate the wisdom of our Founding Fathers or of our First Amendment. He believes he has the right to dictate the limits of our freedom to worship as he sees fit. Thus the bias he has exercised has a firm base to rest upon – albeit an unconstitutional one.

I am referring to the waiver in the health care bill for Muslims based on their faith, without any request from them or any discussion by our elected officials who passed this monstrosity of a bill. This is not an administrative waiver from the HHS Secretary. (That the health care bill lets the Secretary grant such waivers, subject only to her whims, is bad enough, but beyond scope here.) FactCheck.org found that HHS had granted no such waivers to specific Muslim groups—as of two years ago. But the Senators who wrote the health care bill baked a generalized waiver into it, by borrowing key phrases from the Social Security Act. See here for how that part of the health care law reads, and here for how that works for Muslims. Any religion, like Islam, that forbids insurance, gets a pass from buying it, so long as it existed as of December 31, 1950.

No such waiver was extended to the Catholics, whose teachings forbid contraception – even after much national protest by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. This makes the waiver discriminatory. Either Mr. Obama should rescind the religious waiver he gave to the Muslims, or he should extend one to the Catholics as well – not to do so is discriminatory. Unfortunately, that’s not all that unusual a decision from a man who seems to believe all the hype that he is god-like. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised when he starts acting like a god.