You Asked Who To Do What?

So I was glad to see President Obama's struggle with the Catholic Church roll into a second week. One skill this president has proven as a strength has been to make controversies stemming from his poor judgment go away quickly. Some of that is no doubt due to the desire of mainstream media to make him look good, but let's give the guy some credit - he does have a great PR team.

Of course I'm sorry for the pain of my Catholic friends but readers do not be fooled - this is not a Catholic problem - this is a problem for all of us.

Just to recap, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Obamacare - REQUIRES employers to provide employees with health care coverage that includes access to birth control and abortion… or abandon their employees to the public option.

And before you think I'm piling on Obama here, hang on. Kathleen Sebelius the Secretary of Health and Human Services issued the regulations that put the law into effect and Nancy Pelosi and 218 Democratic friends in the House of Representatives voted for the law before they read it. Sixty U.S. Senators did the same thing. There was no compromise (or consultation) with Republicans in the development of the law and there was no transparency  to the public ("You have to pass it so you can read it.") as far as what was included in the drafting of the law.  In sum, 281 people in Washington, DC decided they are smart enough to decide what health care is for the rest of us. (Not what we need… what "it" is.)

So back to last week's news. As regulations are being issued to enact the law it becomes clear there is a conflict with its requirements and the values of the Catholic Church. It is too easy to point out the short-sightedness of a law that can only be implemented by asking 1/6th of all health care providers and 1/6th of all private educators to compromise their values. It doesn't take much more to get engaged in a battle over whether abortion and birth control are "moral." Both are valuable questions, but they both miss the point.

The real question is: Why is the federal government even involved in the discussion about what services or coverage insurance companies provide or what insurance plans employers make available to their employees? Obamacare is an enormous incursion on the rights of companies to develop the benefits and compensation that best attract the right employees. It is destructive to employees' rights to contract for compensation that best serves their own families' interests.  What's more, the added compliance cost of Obamacare decreases the corporate profit available with which to hire and compensate employees.

Who thought it was a good idea to insert a government bureaucracy between employees and employers?  Why should government dictate what services an insurance plan covers or the compensation choices a company offers its employees? Ultimately, this is the discussion that should be driven by the latest revelation from Obamacare and how it has impacted our Catholic friends and neighbors: Do we want more government involvement in our personal lives or less?

Ronald Reagan once said, "When you get in bed with the government, you'd better plan on getting something other than a good night's sleep." I don't know about you, but I'm not sleeping well these days.