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Posted on 05/23/2012 3:24:48 AM PDT by markomalley
Ave Maria University has become the second Catholic college to announce it will discontinue its student health insurance plan due to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.
In a May 21 statement, university president Jim Towey called the mandate “an affront to our core values.”
“Ave Maria University will not offer or pay for health insurance plans that violate our deeply-held religious beliefs,” he said.
The announcement comes amid continued controversy over a federal insurance mandate that will require employers and colleges to offer health care plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-causing drugs, even if doing so violates their religious beliefs.
The mandate has been widely criticized for the threat that it poses to religious freedom. Catholic schools, hospitals and charitable agencies have warned that they will be forced to consider closing their doors rather than comply with the mandate and act against the beliefs.
In choosing to cut its student health insurance plan, Ave Maria is following in the footsteps of Franciscan University of Steubenville, which also recently announced that it would be dropping its student policy to avoid participating in a plan that violated Catholic teaching.
Towey said it was “regrettable” that the “long-standing tradition” of protecting religious freedom was being fiercely attacked and that college students at religious institutions would be among the “first victims.”
He explained that since its founding, Ave Maria University has offered its students an inexpensive health insurance policy, which specifically excludes coverage of products and procedures that violate Church teaching.
However, that changed when the university was recently notified by its insurance carrier that coverage of these objectionable “preventive care services” would soon be required despite the school’s religious opposition to them.
In addition, the insurance carrier said that university students would face both a 66 percent increase in their premiums and an increase in their deductible as a result of requirements under the Affordable Care Act.
“It is a sad day when Ave Maria’s students are forced to choose between enrolling in a health insurance plan that is both costly and offers morally objectionable benefits, and having no coverage at all,” said Towey.
Ave Maria filed a lawsuit seeking relief from the mandate in February. Towey said he is confident in the favorable outcome of the suit and applauded the other Catholic groups that have joined in the effort of “taking this battle to the courts.”
On May 21, a wave of new lawsuits against the mandate was announced. Forty-three Catholic dioceses and organizations across the country are filing lawsuits in 12 different jurisdictions.
Bishops from dioceses across the country have warned that the contraception mandate could threaten the valuable contribution offered by Catholic education, health care and social services in the U.S.
Towey also addressed this point, explaining that Ave Maria University offers scholarships and strives to make its education as affordable as possible for students.
“At a time when the issue of the affordability of college education is at the forefront of the public debate, the Federal government’s mandate is hurting the cause, not helping,” he said.
Hey, all these kids can go on their parent’s insurance!
Remember the A team and the guy who used to say” Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?”
This is the plan.
To put health Insurance agencies out of business and force you onto Obamacare.
The BIG LIE, you can keep your insurance is being put on display at Catholic Colleges first, but don’t worry folks it will come around to your insurance soon.
Which, of course, was the goal all along: to force all employers to get rid of their private insurance. Obama wins.
To point out how these university health policies worked....you had to use their own facilities, which tended to have a very limited number of services that they could offer. Most university students will tell you that the chief purpose of the campus clinic...was to operate an emergency room for drunk and doped-up students to go to....when they got really bad off. If you count in the fact that these are all kids who ought to be in the prime of their life...this was a swell deal because it was all so cheap. If you had 45-year old students showing up...the campus health insurance deal would have been double or triple what it typically sold for.
You have to be realistic about these things.
http://michellemalkin.com/2012/05/22/catholic-obama-administration/
Catholic lawsuit against Obamacare mandate cites 1993 legislation written by Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer...
About two months ago I broke my foot and went to the town hospital emergency room. Not many people there, but it took 4 hours to get an X-ray and then some crutches, a boot-shoe and a pain pill that did nothing. The bill ended up being $1500. With a first-rate insurance plan, this is what I got. I shudder to think it would have been under Obama’s Plan.
gotta love irony
$1500? IMHO, you got off cheap.
You think $1500 for an Xray is cheap? The rest of the time
was spent by them giving my insurance card a rectal exam.
the kids under age 27 can stayy on Mummy and Daddy’s insurance
the kids over 27 will have to pay for their condoms and abortions, even if it cuts into their cell phone and starbucks money
the kids under age 27 can stayy on Mummy and Daddy’s insurance
the kids over 27 will have to pay for their condoms and abortions, even if it cuts into their cell phone and starbucks money
Using basic economic principles there are two factors involved in pricing. One is cost and the other is value. For the value, what amount of money would you be willing to pay to set your foot right? Does the value change with access, meaning are you willing to pay more for immediate service rather than waiting a few days.
As far as the cost goes and the the 4 hours wai for the X-ray; the equipment and the personnel required to do the X-Ray have to be ready 24 hours per day, the equipment needs to be regularly maintained and the personnel are continually trained. The facility housing the equipment cost 100's per square foot to build and probably around 5 to 10 per square foot to maintain. When the X-ray is completed, qualified people need to read the results and provide reports for your attending doctor. The attending doctor and nurses are also ready 24 hours per day and the examining rooms have their own facility costs. In addition to the direct costs of providing the facility, equipment and personnel, their are the indirect costs for administration, insurance, interest etc.
And yes, come the ‘explanations’. The real reason it cost so much is because of the illegals and those that choose to use the emergency room as a general practicioner’s office, as well as the drunks and drug addicts ‘explaining’ why they need a prescription to get this drug filled because their doctor is out of reach, etc.
Your explanations are reasoned and well-explained, but pointless, and I won’t even go into torts. We all know what the problem is. Realize it.
SCOTUS has an interesting circle to square: from the beginning the intent of the majority of the 110th Congress in passing ObamaCare was to claim to help the American people while actually stabbing us in the back. Does SCOTUS dare to hold, 5-4, that that is the fact of the matter?
So what you are saying is that if you had known the cost was going to be $1,500 at the outset, you would have kept shopping, decided to wait for a regular appointment or left your foot broken.
At that point an injured/sick person is at the mercy of the establishment.
I will tell you this, however, a month after I broke the foot and the cast was removed, I sprained my good foot to where it put me back on crutches. This was on a Friday, and I waited until Monday when I could go to the doctor instead of going back to the emergency room.
Your explanation of the costs being due to personnel, plant, equipment, insurance, markup, etc. are all well and good and that's what justifies the true costs.
There are two additional factors: revenue and torts that also significantly affect the 'cost'. Torts increase the insurance costs tremendously, and the revenues are severely diminished by illegals, indigents, and other groups (Medicaid, etc.) not paying for the services, the costs of which bounce back to another category in the mix above I did not count - UNPAID bills.
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