HHS mandate could close 13 percent of the nation’s hospitals

Life Site News ^ | 3-5-12 | Ben Johnson

[ReformationFan]

The nation’s Catholic bishops have vowed to close their religious institutions rather than comply with the HHS mandate that they provide insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. In a column printed on CatholicNewWorld, Francis Cardinal George urged people to purchase a copy of the Archdiocesan directory “as a souvenir,” because in two years the page containing a list of Catholic hospitals and health care institutions “will be blank.”

Ed Morrissey of the Hot Air blog calculated what it would mean if the Catholic bishops shut down all religious institutions that are ineligible for the conscience clause under the health care reform law.

“The Catholic Church…operates 12.6 percent of hospitals in the U.S., according to the Catholic Health Association of the U.S., accounting for 15.6 percent of all admissions and 14.5 percent of all hospital expenses, a total for Catholic hospitals in 2010 of $98.6 billion,” he wrote. “Almost a third (32 percent) of these hospitals are located in rural areas, where patients usually have few other options for care.” All in all, “more than one in six seniors and disabled patients get attention from these hospitals.”

As a result,120,000 beds would disappear from the U.S. health care system.

“I think the contingency is remote that all the Catholic hospitals will close,” Richard Ralston, the executive director of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, told LifeSiteNews.com. “If they’re put in an intolerable moral position, they would have the right to do that.”

The closure of Catholic, Southern Baptist, and other religious institutions is but one element among many that critics say would reduce the supply of physicians and medical institutions once the president’s health care reform is implemented – reducing supply while tens of millions of newly insured Americans swell demand.

[ReformationFan]

I think the final quote of the article is very accurate: '“Freedom of religion (or freedom of anything) enrages the collectivist, intellectual, political, and journalist elites if it stands in the way of their control over every detail of our daily lives,” he wrote in a new column to be published shortly by the Orange County Register. “That makes religion itself the target of this rage.”'

[massgopguy]

That would constitute a “crisis” and Church property would be Nationalized.

[Ranger Warrior]

I thought that the HHS mandate included all institutions, i.e. hospitals, schools. Wouldn’t the Bishops have to include all parochial schools? What’s the percentage of school children attending Catholic schools? Will the public school system absorb this? Will the Catholic Church be forced to close institutions like Boys Town in Omaha? The conscience clause should be a right, not something tossed into the trash like garbage.

[Joe the Pimpernel]

Even better.

Health care is not the purpose of ObamaCare.

It's purpose is to "overwhelm the system," in the immortal words of the rooom-temperature Richard Cloward and the still-breathing Frances Piven.

[Ohioan]

What should add to the outrage here, is that under the Constitution, the Federal Government has no legitimate role in civilian health care--none. Dealing with matters of health, safety & morals, has always remained under the umbrella of "The Police Power," which was left to the States, when the Federal entity was established.

So what we see here, is a clear intent to violate the specific language of the First Amendment--i.e., Congress interfering with the free exercise of religion--to intrude ever further into a field in which it has no authority to act in the first place.

Enough is surely enough!!

William Flax

[Westbrook]

> That would constitute a “crisis” and Church property would
> be Nationalized.

EXACTLY!

And that is PRECISELY the intended outcome!

[GeronL]

Shutting them down is what the left wants of course, gives them cause to nationalize healthcare

[lurk]

Ol Joe called it collectivizing. Hugo calls it expropriadze. Barry calls it affordable health care.

[ScottinVA]

It would create a greater health-care crisis than the one we already have, and Obama would welcome it with open tentacles. Nothing creates more opportunity for government-induced rationing and control of a commodity than a shortage.

[Westbrook]

> Wouldn’t the Bishops have to include all parochial schools?
> What’s the percentage of school children attending Catholic
> schools? Will the public school system absorb this? Will
> the Catholic Church be forced to close institutions like
> Boys Town in Omaha?

The government will take these over and remand them to state control.

The state will turn the parochial schools into public schools and staff them with currently unemployed “teachers”.

All these institutions will continue to operate, under “new management”, the management of the government collective.

You will be assimilated.

Resistance is futile.

[G Larry]

13% of this Nation’s citizens could close HHS!

[spunkets]

"'“Freedom of religion (or freedom of anything) enrages the collectivist, intellectual, political, and journalist elites if it stands in the way of their control over every detail of our daily lives,” he wrote in a new column to be published shortly by the Orange County Register. “That makes religion itself the target of this rage.”' "

It was the Church itself that taught their flock that charity was a proper function of govm't and that they should support the transfer of charitable activity to govm't. They assumed though that they were the ones that would retain, or have control, even after they promoted and justified taking and using other people's time, money and property by force for the purpose of providing charity. Had they not taught that charity and acts of charity were entitlements, the bishops and their flocks wouldn't be in such a mess.

Now charity has become entitlement and free will, along with individual rights has been eliminated in preference to the will of the collective a machine, which is run and controlled by the will of the rulers, who are the unscrupulous folks that happen to run things and are and will always be motivated by their own personal intents and goals.

[Elvina]

open tentacles

Exactly right. My "normal" life has pretty much been on hold since the HHS Abortifacient Mandate was introduced. I guess it's going to stay that way, because we need to do everything we can to get those tentacles out of office.

[Angry_White_Man_Syndrome]

I think there is an even better way to get the point across. Since the argument is that Catholic Institutions are not exempt due to they employ and serve non-Catholics, they should simply state that they are no longer in the business of employing or serving non-Catholics. While this may bring charges of discrimination, they can state that they are just not equipped to deal with non-Catholics as the law is written.

[Digger]

The nation’s Catholic bishops have vowed to close their religious institutions rather than comply

This would be just what these commies want. Instead they should be rioting in the streets, disrupting PP outlets, church members on Sundays, instead of in chruch should be staging sit-ins at those Catholic congress people who vote for abortions. However, the passive christians would rather succumb than start any violence. Now do you really think this nation can be saved with that outlook. ( just one persons opinion)

[Ranger Warrior]

If the Catholic institutions restricted service to Catholics only, then they would lose their hospital licenses. Besides, no Catholic institution would ever deny aid and comfort to someone in need. I think Obama is going to try to box these institutions in. He believes the Bishops are trying to bluff, when in fact, Bishops do not bluff... nor will they blink. If Obama wins this one, it’s time for folks like me to find a country where the ideal of Freedom of Religion is not something tossed in the trash by some socialist dictator wannabee.