Let's jump in head first. Obamacare is a bad idea. It just is. For me it is anyway. I'm sure there is some segment of our country that is high-five'ing the television for some part of it. But, it is what it is at the moment and even though it cost me more for less care than I had last year, it is, at this moment, the law we must follow.
Except Hobby Lobby apparently. They have religion on their side. Obamacare is "raising the standard" of health care and forcing business to cover more choices, even if they are unnecessary. This raises a problem for Hobby Lobby because they are pro-life and one of the "options" for women and their birth-control options is the "Plan B" line of birth-control (The "Day After Pill" etc). They are refusing to pay for the Plan B medication, facing million-dollar-per-day fines. The case will head to the Supreme Court soon.
So, the left is forcing the right to use drugs that the right says kill babies. That's the jist of the argument. Again, Obamacare is a bad idea as a health-care plan. It's intent is to offer affordable health-care to ALL Americans, yet few Americans actually see the benefit. Instead, most Americans are funding those who don't have benefits. At least that's the way it feels when I get my check with a bigger chunk of money gone, higher deductibles, and higher co-pays.
The question from either side is a one part question. From the middle, it's actually two parts. 1) Should the government dictate what my health care should be? AND 2) Should my employer be able to do the same?
My answer is NO to both questions. I complained and complained about my previous healthcare - high deductibles, high co-pays, long waits, headaches all around. However, why can't the insurance companies be regulated to charge reasonable amounts. Insurance companies have tuned it into a scam - a fixable scam. Breaking a finger doesn't REALLY cost $22,000, but that's what it says on the bill. Then, the prices is "negotiated" down to $50. It's all to make sure that we HAVE their insurance. So, now with Obamacare, I get to KEEP the same insurance, but Obamacare makes them do it their way, causing all of my deductibles and co-pays to go up. Now, the focus is on making enough money to cover the people that don't have to pay a thing for their healthcare. Hardly seems fair from my little working job.
But, shockingly, it has raised a more troubling question - does my employer get to pick and choose what medications I can be covered for because of their religious beliefs? Hobby Lobby is basically refusing to pay for a specific section of drugs because they don't believe it's moral. They are telling the women in their company that they value their employment, but forget to take a birth control pill ONE TIME, and suffer the consequences. What if Hobby Lobby were Catholics and decided that they didn't believe in pre-marital sex to the point that any employee having sex that wasn't married was subject to termination. Any pregnant non-married employee would be let go immediately. What if they were Scientologist and didn't believe in mental health drugs? What if they decided that it was required for you to pray to Allah instead of healthcare? I know, it's silly. But so is any religious-based health care decision.
Believe what you want to believe. But don't force it on those that are not breaking any laws. The whole problem with Hobby Lobby's defense, in my opinion, is that they have a false opinion on what the Plan B drugs do. The Day After pill makes the environment unfriendly for an egg (fertilized or not) to attach itself to the uterine wall. And, a woman is not pregnant until she becomes the life-line for that egg. So, the pill does not kill a fetus - it prevents it from forming. In a sense, this is an argument about when life begins. Hobby Lobby is moving the legal line to where their beliefs lie. They believe that life begins when an egg is fertilized.
If the Supreme Court rules on the side of Hobby Lobby, regardless of if you are pro-life or pro-choice, it opens up a dangerous world where employers will start using this case to get out of paying for a menu of items that we would normally get if we purchased our own, private insurance.
Neither side is close to right in this case. Americans and employees lose both ways.
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