I don't think some people understand the purpose of insurance.
Car Insurance Example:
Why do we have car insurance? Because when driving a car, there is the risk of occasional, rare, unexpected high costs. With car insurance, everyone pays a little bit and in return receives the assurance that if an accident happens, it will get taken care of.
Now imagine if car insurance companies started paying for expected, regularly occurring costs, like your gas. What would be the point in that? You would be giving money to the insurance company just so that they could turn around and give it back. But that's not the only problem. FIRST of all, there is the added overhead costs in running the company. No matter how efficient the company is, they could never return the same amount back to the people that they received from them. SECOND, because the insurance company pays for everyone's gas, there would be no incentive to reduce gas consumption. No would would bother taking the bus, riding a bike, or walking with the goal of reducing the amount of money they spend on gas, because the insurance pays for it. On top of that, people would always use the most expensive, premium gas. The results would be an increase in overall gas consumption and cost, causing the insurance company to continue increasing the cost of insurance premiums. THIRD, the system would be inherently unfair because everyone would pay the same amount regardless of how much gas they use.
Health Insurance Reality:
OK, I hope everyone sees the problem with having insurance companies pay for regularly occurring, expected costs. But that is exactly what half of America wants to have happen with Health Insurance!!! Obamacare causes health insurance companies to pay for regularly occurring, expected health costs, which will only result in larger health care costs for everyone, lower quality, and a restriction in our freedom of health care choices.
Take the recent birth control debates for example. Liberals want insurance companies to have to pay for everyone to have "free" birth control. On top of all the other problems we've already talked about, the HHS mandate (the birth control mandate) requires religious institutions to provide birth control coverage in the insurance they provide for employees. However, using birth control is against the teaching of the Catholic Church. In spite of that, Obamacare forces these Catholic institutions to pay for birth control for their employees, in direct violation of their religion beliefs. We conservative Republicans don't want the government involved. If you want to use birth control, no one is stopping you, but why force other people to pay for your "free" birth control, especially when it is against their beliefs?
Obama, on the other hand, wants you to think that conservatives are trying to take away a woman's right to use birth control and do what she wants with her own body. Democrats call it the "war on women." However, our war isn't against women. We cherish and respect womanhood. Our war is against these socialist tactics that simply don't work, that drive up costs, lower quality, and limit our freedom. Our war is against legislation that violates first amendment free exercise of religious rights. They call it our "war on women." However, what is really happening is a "war on free market" and a "war on religion."
I'm commenting here as a Catholic. Thanks for mentioning the HHS mandate. I think our bishops would do well to mention a little more about the reasoning behind our opposition to it. The idea that women cannot be equal with men unless they have barren wombs is highly offensive to me as a woman. When pregnancy is treated as if it is a disease, and motherhood is considered to be akin to slavery, surely we are going backward, not "forward" in this country. If we believe that women have to work outside the home in order to have dignity, then we are saying there is no dignity in motherhood. Obama did not fundamentally transform America. America has fundamentally transformed itself having denied the true dignity of women long ago. It's one thing to believe motherhood is a bad thing. It's another to force the Church to agree by materially cooperating in it. They say the Church hates women. I would say, to the contrary, they hate motherhood.
ReplyDeleteOn the healthcare issue, I am uninsured and cannot afford to go to the doctor unless I am having a very serious health problem. The Catholic Church would say, and I agree, that it is important to increase access to healthcare for people who cannot afford it. How that's done is a matter open for debate, but we would not argue that it's "too expensive" to give everyone access. We would argue that human life trumps dollars. The birth control mandate and the abortion coverage in Obamacare show that the president is concerned with covering more than basic needs, and that he does not see human life as being the top priority.