Posted on 03/23/2010 9:03:46 PM PDT by freedomwarrior998
The Democrats passed their mandatory health care bill, yet all conservative Christians are exempt if they want to be — and the only requirement is that they have to live a biblical lifestyle.
Did you ever think you would see the day this would happen?
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.starexponent.com ...
This could be a good way to engage in civil disobedience and opt out of KenyanCare while we work on the repeal.
J. Michael Sharman - Editorial Columnist
Published: March 23, 2010
Updated: March 23, 2010
Did you ever think you would see the day this would happen?
Just before 11 p.m. Sunday, the House passed the Senate amendments to the health care bill. The final vote was 219-212, with 219 Democrats and zero Republicans voting for it, and 34 Democrats and 178 Republicans voting against.
The bill is an Internal Revenue Code bill. The core feature of the health care bill is that it forces people to have health care insurance and punishes offenders with a tax. Section 10106(a) of the bill
says that: “In the absence of the requirement, some individuals would make an economic and financial decision to forego health insurance coverage and attempt to self-insure, which increases financial risks to households and medical providers.”
Section 10106(b) then mandates, “If a taxpayer who is an applicable individual … fails to meet the requirement of subsection (a) for 1 or more months, then … there is hereby imposed on the taxpayer a penalty with respect to such failures.” The Senate voted on a tax penalty of 2% of the person’s annual income, and the House upped that to 2.5%.
The New York Times has reported that the attorneys general in at least three states — Virginia, Florida and South Carolina — will file legal challenges, primarily on the grounds that forcing individuals to buy insurance is a violation of the Constitution. The Christian Science Monitor says the attorneys general from Alabama, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Washington, Utah, North Dakota and South Dakota will also challenge the law itself and the manner in which it was passed as being unconstitutional.
A Supreme Court case they are likely to cite is Clinton v. City of New York, in which Justice Kennedy said: “Separation of powers was designed to implement a fundamental insight: Concentration of power in the hands of a single branch is a threat to liberty. The Federalist [Paper No. 47] states the axiom in these explicit terms: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands ... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
It is all the more startling then, that in the midst of this sweeping new legislation is the “Religious Exemption,” Section 1501(b), which states: “The term ‘applicable individual’ … shall not include any individual for any month if such individual is a member of a health care sharing ministry for the month.”
The bill then defines a “health care sharing ministry” to be any 501(c)(3) organization that has existed since at least 1999 whose members “share a common set of ethical or religious beliefs and share medical expenses among members in accordance with those beliefs.”
A legislative white paper written by the Citizens Council on Health Care in January 2010 just after the Senate inserted that exemption, noted that, “There are three medical sharing ministries in the United States: Medi-Share, Christian Healthcare Ministries, and Samaritan Ministries International. They serve from 25,000 to 42,000 people. … Common membership requirements include an agreement not to smoke, drink heavily or use illicit drugs. Members must attend church regularly, and agree not to have sex outside of marriage … monthly fees for a family of four are between $240 and 400.”
The Democrats passed their mandatory health care bill, yet all conservative Christians are exempt if they want to be — and the only requirement is that they have to live a biblical lifestyle.
Did you ever think you would see the day this would happen?
Sharman practices law in Culpeper. His column appears each Tuesday.
That provision won’t last long if the law survives it’s court challenge.
If this is for real, I’m in... oh, and please ignore my tagline
Any attempt to force these organizations out of business would likely violate the First Amendment. Granted things are a lot easier for us if we can take Congress back in November.
It is real.
Is that a calendar month, or 30 days, or one lunar cycle? (I suspect that moon-bats would be most comfortable counting lunar cycles).
So, if this is based on calendar month, does that mean I can get coverage for March 31 and April 1, and not need it again until May 31 in order to comply? And is there a minimum lenght of coverage to comply with Obamacare?
It's possible we will see a booming business in 2-day health care, if there is a free market left in this country.
Tagline.... ROFL
We’d better be careful about this.
We got a notice from probably the largest of these organizations, Samaritan, that said that they were consiidered “inadequate.” If Samaritan is inadequate, none of them will be “deemed” adequate.
But there may have been some last minute changes favoring these since we received that notice. I will check again in person when I am back in the USA in May.
I’m just saying . . . better be careful.
I don’t trust ANYTHING in Washington these days (actually I never have).
Let’s look into it!
‘‘(2) RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS.—
18 ‘‘(A) RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE EXEMP19
TION.—Such term shall not include any indi20
vidual for any month if such individual has in
21 effect an exemption under section 1311(d)(4)(H)
22 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
23 Act which certifies that such individual is a
24 member of a recognized religious sect or division
25 thereof described in section 1402(g)(1) and an
327
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 adherent of established tenets or teachings of such
2 sect or division as described in such section.
3 ‘‘(B) HEALTH CARE SHARING MINISTRY.—
4 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Such term shall
5 not include any individual for any month
6 if such individual is a member of a health
7 care sharing ministry for the month.
8 ‘‘(ii) HEALTH CARE SHARING MIN9
ISTRY.—The term ‘health care sharing min10
istry’ means an organization—
11 ‘‘(I) which is described in section
12 501(c)(3) and is exempt from taxation
13 under section 501(a),
14 ‘‘(II) members of which share a
15 common set of ethical or religious be16
liefs and share medical expenses among
17 members in accordance with those be18
liefs and without regard to the State in
19 which a member resides or is em20
ployed,
21 ‘‘(III) members of which retain
22 membership even after they develop a
23 medical condition,
24 ‘‘(IV) which (or a predecessor of
25 which) has been in existence at all
328
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 times since December 31, 1999, and
2 medical expenses of its members have
3 been shared continuously and without
4 interruption since at least December
5 31, 1999, and
6 ‘‘(V) which conducts an annual
7 audit which is performed by an inde8
pendent certified public accounting
9 firm in accordance with generally ac10
cepted accounting principles and
11 which is made available to the public
12 upon request.
See above, I cut and paste the appropriate provision directly from the bill. All three of the major health sharing organizations meet the criteria.
Where do I sign up?
Any of the links in the thread.
Oh, do you know why they were “inadequate”?
I was hoping to join one of these organizations when my husbands employer does drop the health care insurance. It will in October when the “changes” in his health care options arrive.
The exemption forms the basis for the legal argument that health care is not a comercial activity, since citizens can, according to the bill make an individual religious choice to decline medical services and health care. If health insurance and care are a personal choice protected by the First Amendment, then they cannot be commercial activity subject to regulation by Congress under the interstate commerce clause.
I am certain that was prior to this exemption being put in the legislation.
Thank you. I saw your post after mine went up. I was wondering if that was the case.
YEAH!!!
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