From my perspective, I feel like Democrats are making this another polarizing issue to demonize Republicans. It makes a good sound byte to say that Republicans want to take birth control options away from women, or that conservatives want women to die on the floor of the hospital. This is simply not true, and I hope people are smart enough to really dig in and research the issues without believing this hype.
Here are my thoughts on the current health care debate. Obviously it's way too long for a Facebook post, which is why I love to blog!
1. Our government was founded on the principle of separation of Church and State. It guarantees religious freedom. That means the government has no right to tell our churches how to perform their business. This is tricky, as we've seen from the controversies of Sharia law (Islam's law which some say treats women as inferior or allows cruelty in deciding disputes). Other controversy stems from anti-discrimination laws that protect things like religion, yet religious institutions are allowed to discriminate for that very reason (i.e. not hiring a person of another denomination). While I recognize that this is a difficult thing to sort out, I think all of our decisions as a country need to focus on the fact that government is not supposed to dictate what religious organizations do for matters that specifically go against their religious beliefs. . . . such as birth control.
2. Somehow, in this current fight, "a woman's access to reproductive healthcare" has come to mean "a woman's access to free reproductive healthcare". Right now, even without the changes to health care, all women have access to birth control. Isn't that why we completely subsidize Planned Parenthood - so that women of all income levels can quickly, easily and cheaply purchase birth control? All women also have the right to go into any grocery store and purchase birth control. And of course, all women are free to not have sex. But the issue has now become women's right to have these things provided for free. The Catholic Church's unwillingness to provide birth control under an insurance plan it pays for does not mean that women can't get the birth control they desire.
3. Women can choose to not work for a religious institution. My sister recently applied for a job at a Catholic School. The job was hers except she had to promise to not live with her fiance, since they were not married. The school felt that living with a man she wasn't married to went against their religious principles. So my sister turned down the job. If women want to have birth control provided under their employer's insurance plan, then they have the freedom to not apply for jobs within a religious organization, or to take the job and know they will have to pay for birth control on their own.
4. This is a perfect example of how a country wide mandate isn't always the best fix for the problem, since there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Yes, health care in our country is broken. It's broken because of the ridiculous cost of health care and prescription drugs, it's broken because hospitals have to charge paying customers enough to cover the non-paying customers, it's broken because of frivolous lawsuits and medical malpractice, it's broken because insurance companies can't sell across state lines (causing monopolies in individual states), it's broken because people can be turned down for pre-existing conditions, and it's broken because it is way too expensive for individuals to shop for and purchase their own plans outside of an employer. Yet none of these issues are fixed by the new health care mandate.
All the mandate does is force employers to purchase insurance for all employees even if the system is completely broken. And it forces individuals to purchase insurance even if it is ridiculously expensive and they don't want it. Instead, if we actually fixed the problems, health insurance would be much easier for employers to provide or for individuals to purchase. And those that don't want it? Well they shouldn't have to buy it - but they also shouldn't receive free health care. After all, an uninsured driver doesn't suddenly get free auto body work when they get in an accident!
When you force "something" on all the people in our country, you quickly start to realize that the "something" doesn't work for everyone. I think this birth control issue is only the first of several issues that will come to light in the next several years.
5. I also find it interesting how many waivers have been given out by the Obama administration. These waivers allow companies to not comply with the health care mandate. The result? Well, Main Street companies in our country have this health care mandate shoved down our throats, while anyone who is friends with the Obama administration gets a pass. A large majority of firms given waivers are unions and Wall Street firms. I'm sure that will help Obama's campaign funds for his 2012 election. But it sure doesn't help the rest of us. If this health care mandate is so great, why are so many companies being given waivers?
In short, the entire Obamacare mandate sucks, because it doesn't fix the problem with healthcare in our country. I vigorously support healthcare reform (especially since the health insurance our company buys has increased substantially in cost EVERY SINGLE YEAR) - but only where it actually reforms something, and doesn't just make a bad product mandatory.
If you've made it this far in my post, you deserve something funny. So here's a sign that was posted in the shooting range the other day.
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