Posted on 04/03/2010 7:27:21 AM PDT by Libloather
Amish unaffected by new health law
‘Religious conscience’ covered in legislation.
By JON RUTTER, Staff Writer
Mar 28, 2010 00:18 EST
Most Americans will have to carry health insurance under new federal health care law or risk paying tax penalties — unless they get a "religious conscience" pass.
That's what the legislation says.
Lawmakers note that "religious conscience" refers to conservative Plain sect groups even though it doesn't specifically name them.
Members of Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite churches have long eschewed commercial insurance in favor of community fundraisers and church-run health plans.
The landmark health care overhaul signed last week by President Obama promises to eventually cover 32 million uninsured Americans — and impose hundreds of dollars of fines a year on individuals who don't buy insurance.
House Democrats capped a year-long political struggle Thursday when they passed a so-called "fix-it" measure containing minor revisions.
Currently, said Andrew Wimer, the spokesman for U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, "It appears the Amish will be exempt on an individual basis."
On the other hand, Wimer said, the reform language has been "extremely vague" about entities such as Amish-owned businesses.
Under the legislation, businesses that don't offer health insurance as a benefit will have to pay penalties of $2,000 a year per full-time worker if they have more than 50 workers.
"There's a lot that's unclear at this point," Wimer said. He added that the fog is expected to lift as the legislation is enforced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Internal Revenue Service.
The majority of the health insurance mandates don't kick in until 2014.
"It could be 2012, it could be 2014 until we see how the details work out," Wimer said.
The historic legislation has Amish people talking.
"Oh my yes" it does, exclaimed an Amish farmer from Paradise Township, who added that he's suspicious of the measure. "We'll wait and see."
As of last week, Wimer said, no Amish constituents had contacted Pitts' office with concerns.
Authorities on Plain sect culture say they doubt any big changes are in store for the more than 25,000 Amish children and adults in the area.
For one thing, said Donald B. Kraybill, author of "The Riddle of Amish Culture," "There are very, very few [Amish companies employing 50 or more people] in Lancaster County. The bulk of Amish businesses have 12 or fewer people."
For another, there's a long history of exempting Plain people from sweeping federal mandates. The precendent goes back to 1965, when self-employed Amish workers were allowed to opt out of the Social Security and Medicare programs.
In 1988, said Steven Nolt, a Goshen College professor of history who has written extensively about Plain communities, the exemption was extended to Amish employees who worked for Amish-owned companies.
Those in a small Amish subset —church members employed by "English" businesses — still are required to participate in the Social Security program.
"Where I live in northern Indiana," Nolt added, "there's actually a larger minority who fall into that category" because many Amish people work in factories that make recreational vehicles and modular homes.
Nolt and Wimer noted that the religious conscience phrase in the health care measure copies earlier exemption language in the Internal Revenue Service code.
"If you didn't know what it was talking about," Nolt said, "the wording in the bill doesn't make any sense."
There has also been confusion over who else might be eligible to skip health insurance.
Despite erroneous reports, said spokeswoman Allison Doty, "this exclusion has nothing to do with" the Church of Christ, Scientist. It applies only to established religious groups that pay for their own health care.
Congress is letting the Health and Human Services secretary decide how often people who are qualified for waivers should apply for them.
However, Nolt said, he expects Plain sect individuals to have to apply one time only, just like they do with Social Security.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett branded the health care measure unconstitutional and joined 12 other state attorneys general in suing to try to block it.
"There shouldn't be a lot of haggling" over the religious conscience question, Nolt said. "Whether there will be, I don't know."
From time to time we receive letters from people who want our help in becoming Amish. Do people ever convert to the Amish faith? Yes, but it is relatively rare. I know of one young man who is about to join the Amish faith here in Lancaster, after giving up his car and other aspects of "worldly life." Some Amish wonder if he is really ready, but believe he is sincere.
Why do people wish to be Amish? As our way of life becomes more hectic, we may see a slower, simpler style of living as appealing. Some people leave their high pressure jobs in the urban jungle, move to the mountains, and conduct business via computer, phone, and fax, the very pieces of technology that were supposed to make our lives easier. The Amish lifestyle is seen as a return to nature, even though barely half of our local Amish are actually farmers.
Some readers who write us tell of broken homes, divorced parents, fathers who abandoned wife and child. They view the Amish community as a place were they would be secure and welcome. What many of these people see is just the surface, a seemingly idyllic life. But being Amish involves many challenges for the outsider.
First of all, the Pennsylvania German dialect is something that must be learned. Then come the challenges of leaving behind those necessities of life like television, stereo, electric appliances, automobile, and fashionable clothing. Finally, you might find the many "ordnung" or rules of the church to be formidable. The way of life cannot be adopted without the religion.
Thus, the Amish are reluctant and suspicious of most outsiders who say they want to be Amish. Rather than sitting down and talking about the religion, the sincere "seeker" is usually placed with a family and takes part in the daily routine, picking up what is required of him by the community and the church much in the same way a child would.
Some Amish have left the church to join more liberal churches that also welcome visitors and where English is the language of worship. Some of these people have set up "plain communities," maintaining a simple way of life without cars and electricity. Others, like the Mennonites, lead a more modern lifestyle, sometimes keeping a plain form of dress, sometimes not. There have even been converts to the "horse and buggy Mennonites." Indeed, most local Mennonite churches welcome visitors for Sunday worship, and the Mennonite Information Center on Route 30 was established to help answer visitors’ questions.
While we at Amish Country News are not of Amish or Mennonite background, we understand that some people are searching for answers to life’s questions. But the Amish share many of the problems most of us have, and they should not be seen as an ideal society or the solution to the world’s ills. Like any other culture, however, there may be important things we can learn from them.
http://www.amishnews.com/publishersmessages/wanttobeamish.htm
Why, those Amish, they didn’t even take the FEMA money when a tornado came through and destroyed their barns. How DARE they not depend upon the gov’t...aren’t they a minority?
Does this violate the 1st Amendment???? Is this case of Congress choosing one Religion over another??? Hello ACLU!!!!!
The Amish are good, solid, conservative people, however their extreme lifestyle is not Biblically mandated. As mentioned they do have the same problems and temptations we all have.
Conservatives would do well to look to the self reliance of the Amish as a means of limiting the power of government.
People whine and cry about the feds taking states rights but in most cases the states sell their rights in return for federal dollars.
Note the arrogance expressed in the writing of this exemption: the government decides which beliefs are worthy of religious exemption. A constitutional objection, or a heartfelt objection, isn’t on the “approved list” of reasons to opt out.
The Amish drive on roads financed with tax dollars, using steel-rimmed wheels that tear up asphalt. Having lived in Amish country, I find they are highly selective in their 'independence' from 'English' society.
If Independents vote Democrat again, if they choose to have their “brilliance” stroked by the media and Democrat Party operatives, then one can say hello to pure democracy for decades to come.
Ya know, comrade?
IMHO
Did they demand tax dollar paved roads, or did the state want them running there?
Do you have any basis for your implied contention that they should build a parallel dirt road system that doesn’t sound silly if examined even superficially?
I will agree with that.
Where do I sign up?
You will find in Amish country they are more humble and less materializtic. So you may object to metal on their wheels and paved roads in stead of dirt, but I'd rather have them as my neighbors than the carnal Christians we have in our neghborhood any day of the week.
What sickens me evenn more is how they advertise the 2010 Census. Get your fair share from the GOVERNMENT. It’s sickening. People are so government dependent it’s sickening. The Amish are NOT government dependent.
You miss the point. They don’t pay gas taxes to pay for road upkeep, but their vehicles cause far more road damage than cars with rubber tires. That is a very sore point in Amish country with those who actually pay to maintain the roads.
They don’t pay gas taxes, and their vehicles cause a disproportionate amount of damage to asphalt.
Some.
Do the Amish pay taxes?
Dan Reno, Nevada
Dear Dan:
Just like the rest of us, the Amish are not exempt from life's two certainties -- death and taxes. However, there is a reason behind the persistent myth that the Amish do not pay taxes.
The Amish live within self-sufficient communities and do not collect Social Security, unemployment, or welfare benefits. According to their religious beliefs, paying Social Security, an insurance premium for the elderly, is tantamount to not "taking care of their own." Amish people who are self-employed are not obliged to pay Social Security tax, but they do still pay all other taxes, including property, income, and sales tax. If an Amish person decides to work outside of the community, he or she must also pay Social Security tax like any other American.
In 1955, the IRS extended the Social Security Act of 1935 to include farm operators. At the time, some Amish people immediately complied with the tax, while others conscientiously objected to it. Many felt that it violated the separation of church and state, some did not want to accept monies for government programs, and still others believed that paying a commercial insurance for the elderly went against their trust in God to take care of them.
The IRS and the Amish played a convoluted shell game for close to a decade, until it all came to a head with the seizure of a struggling farmer's horses in 1961. The Amish elders stuck firmly by their principles, and the ensuing media and community outrage over the incident led the IRS to relent four years later. Tucked away in the 1965 Medicare Bill was a clause exempting the "Old Order Amish" and other religious groups that conscientiously objected to paying insurance premiums from Social Security tax. To be exempt, the group or sect must have been established prior to 1950 and maintain reasonable provisions for their elderly.
http://ask.yahoo.com/20030821.html
Yup, those 18 wheeler carriages and buggies are hell on the highways...and those horseshoes...don’t get me going on that!!! /s
With Obama’s cap and tax executive order raising the price of gasoline and electricity we soon all maybe living like the Amish.
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