Pres. Obama’s “Plan B”.

It sounds as if Pres. Obama is about to give “Plan B” a try in regard to his attacks on the Catholic Church and the first amendment. He may be close to aborting his aggressive mandate against religious liberty. A bitter pill for him to swallow.

It’ll be interesting to see what he conceives to be an “accommodation”.

UPDATE 17:30 GMT:

I watched the President a few minutes ago, and I am still mulling.

It was hardly a surprise that he would start out justifying what he did.

Again, I note the constant use of the Orwellian term “preventive services” and the incessant emphases on “access” (as if women can’t get what they want when they want it) and absolute dedication to make this all “free” (as if nobody has to pay for it anywhere along the chain), and their relentless use of questionable numbers/statistics to side-step the moral question by claiming a “majority” (as if there were no objective right or wrong).

For Pres. Obama, it seems contraception is an absolute good.  It is so good, that he thinks some people have to violate their consciences in order to conform to his view.

Also, if this “accommodation” was already studied in the past, why was it not adopted in the first place?  They reason is obvious: an ideological conviction that government can force Churches to conform to a policy.

For example: What if the Catholic institution/business is self-insuring and doesn’t use some outside insurance company?

And, even if the insurance companies are forced to provide whatever Pres. Obama chooses (and pass the cost on to people who pay premiums), will the Catholic institution be force to disperse what the insurer is forced to provide?

Moreover,

You will hear in the White House spin on this the word “women… women… women”.

This is not a “woman issue”.  This is a 1st Amendment issue.

I also just heard Sec. Sebelius spinning the President’s change of tack.  Again I am reminded of the phrase by Mary McCarthy back in the 70?s about Lillian Hellman:

“Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’”

UPDATE 18:00 GMT:

A correspondent writes with his reaction:

This will blow the cost of polices through the roof and then [Obama’s supporters and all liberals] will put the blame on bishops “who didn’t want to help the poor and forced us to do this” or on “greedy” companies which have a bottm line to keep an eye on and will have to find a way to recoup the added costs.

This is why slowly but surely the State remains as the sole provider.

The bishops must do their homework and understand why this is socialism, why it is immoral and why socialized medicne has always been a privileged means to institute socialism by maiking everybody dependent on graciously granted “rights”.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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49 Comments

  1. disco says:

    Maybe we’ll get two years?

  2. Gail F says:

    According to the AP: Insurance companies will have to provide it themselves. Can you say, “We are buying your vote”??????

  3. kat says:

    I heard this morning a compromise was in the works.

    So, was the fight ONLY about what he was/is doing to the Catholic Church? And if we get “our” way, then no opposition is necessary? That’s what it looks like; that’s what I fear. So WHO pays for this “free” stuff if the insurance companies are giving it away? EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US!! Now ALL of us get to pay for contraception, abortifacients, and the like.

    And Obama wins and gets re-elected by all the Catholics.

    And no one fights against the issue of the government telling a Church what to do; that fight will slowly fade away; but in reality one more step towards government power has been taken.

    NO ONE WINS HERE, not like this…

    Our future in this country is frightening. : (

  4. Supertradmum says:

    I hope it is a plan so obviously cynical that the Bishops do not cave in.

  5. Mary Jane says:

    Just read on CNN that “The White House will expand exemption for religiously affiliated universities and hospitals, source says”.

    This isn’t good enough. I work for a Catholic-owned company…this compromise won’t help my employer.

    We need to keep up the fight!!

  6. irishgirl says:

    Let’s hope that the Bishops don’t fall for this, and keep up the pressure instead!
    Obama and his evil minions MUST be defeated! No ifs, ands or buts!

  7. bigmikensc says:

    And who pays for the insurance? The Bishops and all religious leaders of whatever persuasion need to keep hammering this one home.

  8. Phil_NL says:

    I very much doubt this will be such a bitter pill for BHO, for two reasons:

    A. I don’t believe he gives a …. about the entire issue. It’s a means to enlarge the power of the government and therefore his own, surely, but being in power is the goal – power for power’s sake, not ‘coverage’, ‘healthcare reform’ or ‘reproductive care’. If he has to achieve it through other means, he won’t loose sleep over it – he’ll only regret the setback, not least because his ‘base’ does contain very ideological people on this issue, who he would need to woo in another way.

    B. There are still alternatives for Obama. Maybe he’ll play it through the insurance companies, maybe he’ll just make the insurance polcies he doesn’t like really expensive, or maybe he’ll find some other trick.

    The crucial test will be if, after Obama’s plan, you can still run a business – including a hospital or insurance company – without the government mandating you cover certain items. If you can, and can do so on a level, competitive playing field, Obama will have lost. If you cannot, he has won, and the framework will be in place, so the next Dem can try to thighten the tumbscrews a bit more.

    If ‘Plan B’ does indeed work through the insurance company channel, it will be interesting to see if the Bishops in the US will keep up the pressure. After all, there are many more Church affiliated hospitals than insurance companies…

  9. Bryan Boyle says:

    Has nothing to do with accommodation…has everything, imho, to do with having his leeches set up a crisis (never let one go to waste, remember…), causing everyone to raise a hew and cry, raising the hackles of one group of his or the other in opposition (which also lets The Wun figure out just where the edges are so he can further figure out how to divide and conquer…) , then him seeming to ‘listen’, when, in reality, he’s just, for political reasons (and his own aggrandisement) being able to use others’ throwing themselves on a sword to ensure his grasp of power by appearing to defuse what was planned to be implemented, but will in fact be the end state, regardless.

    Make no mistake…this whole thing was well thought out, predictable, and done for maximum self-benefit. The majority of the bishops will go back to wanting to have photos taken with him, and will go back to peddling ‘Faithful Citizenship’. But, should he survive November…it WILL be instituted after that. Of that, I’d make book on it. So, at best, it may well end up being a pyrrhic victory to the Church…at worst, one more nail in the coffin containing our Constitution.

  10. Dax says:

    Ouch!

    aborting his aggressive mandate, A bitter pill for him to swallow, what he conceives to be an “accommodation”

    I’ll be here all week, folks. Try the osso bucco with toasted orzo risotto.

    (Hint, hint ;)

  11. I can hear Pelosi whispering in his ear saying: Do whatever it takes and the next four years you can stick it to all who oppose you now.” Remember: the nature of a scorpion is to sting; to think otherwise is foolhardy.

  12. tealady24 says:

    I’m with you Mr. Boyle! I absolutely agree this administration is calculated beyond belief; nothing they do is mis-calculated.
    The ONLY way to stop this is to defeat this enemy in November!

    “But how, I ask, does it happen that the saints, who live only for God, resist their ordination through a sense of their unworthiness, and that some run blindly to the priesthood, and rest not until they attain it by lawful or unlawful means? Ah. Unhappy men! Says St. Bernard, to be registered among the priests of God shall be for them the same as to be enrolled on the catalogue of the damned. And why? Because such persons are generally called to the priesthood, not by God, but by relatives, by interest, or ambition. Thus they enter the house of God, not through the motive a priest should have, but through worldly motives. Behold why the faithful are abandoned, the Church dishonored, so many souls perish, and with them such priests are also damned.” ~ St. Alphonsus de Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of the Church (Moral Theology), Founder of the Redemptorist congregation.

  13. acardnal says:

    What the press is reporting is that the Pres. is requiring insurance companies to provide no cost contraception instead of employers.

  14. pookiesmom says:

    This does not address the huge issue of Catholic employers such as EWTN who must comply by this August by either providing the contraceptive, sterilization, abortion coverage or tell their employees where to get these services when they drop health insurance coverage, or face massive fines. Interesting isn’t it, that Catholic teaching on these culture of death issues is now being loudly announced by the main stream media. Too bad our shepherds have been so tardy….better late than never though.

  15. everett says:

    The thing to remember is that this isn’t actually about the contraception. This is about the government thinking that they can define a “religious institution” in any means they see fit, and then require those who are no longer so defined to do things that they are morally opposed to.

  16. New Sister says:

    What if it’s a Catholic-owned insurance company? I will feel sick if Bishops commend POTUS for this, or give the impression he’s moving in the right direction. It’s more lies from a liar who’s buying time – and votes.

    Excellencies, please do not give ground, and please, use this stage to proclaim the Catholic Church’s condemnation of Socialism and tyranny. Talk about her teaching on the principle of subsidiarity.

  17. Dr. K says:

    There is no compromise when it comes to evil. It’s all or nothing.

  18. dep says:

    Well. Here’s the “accommodation”: The president has gone from “to hell with you” to “to hell with you and I think you’re stupid, too.”

  19. Dr. K is correct.

    One can never accommodate evil.

  20. He has not retreated. He has advanced. Instead of convincing everyone to voluntarily offer birth control coverage, he has made it illegal for insurance companies to offer plans that do not cover it.

    He thinks Catholics are STUPID. http://authenticbioethics.blogspot.com/2012/02/obama-thinks-catholics-are-s-t-u-p-i-d.html

  21. jeffreyquick says:

    Insurance companies don’t provide anything “for free”. Catholic institutions will still be paying for this. The difference will be that it won’t appear in the certificate of coverage. And that might be all the fig leaf needed to split off disaffected Obama fans from the bishops.

  22. wmeyer says:

    The “accommodation” is to remove the decision from everyone outside of government. It is directly equivalent to declaring that all abortions are to be federally funded, except, of course, that in this case, they do not print more money to pay for it, they simply make the insurance companies collect from all of us. This is in no way an accommodation to faith-based conscience. It is a different flavor of the treasonous violation of the Constitution which the earlier form was.

  23. Joseph-Mary says:

    Lies and more lies. Strategy. Agenda.

    The culture of death is at the helm. This is the year to vote out those who are in its grasp.

  24. StJude says:

    And here comes the caving in….
    When a Catholic nun is in agreement with anything PP says.. …we have problems.

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics…-announcement/
    Though they’re on opposite sides of the birth control and abortion debate, both Sister Carol Keehan, the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, issued statements Friday morning applauding the compromise, which allows religious organizations to keep contraception out of its coverage while requiring the insurance companies to step in and offer contraceptive coverage to the female employees.

  25. Andy Milam says:

    This is terrible. Actually, from one point of view, it’s worse. Think of this…in the current plan, the employers were the only ones who were forced to pay. That’s awful!

    If Obama passes this off to insurance companies, BOTH employers and employees will be forced to pay!!!!!!

    This is not acceptable. Write to whomever you need to write!!!!

    @St. Jude, your link is broken. I posted about the same thing at my blog. If you’d like to adjust your links accordingly, the working link is there.

    http://traddyiniowa.blogspot.com/

    AMDG+

  26. dep says:

    “Sister Carol Keehan, the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association”

    a/k/a Auntie Antichrist

  27. Shadow says:

    @Doc Angelicus: That’s correct. Because now, through the new plan, we will ALL be paying for “contraceptive coverage” whether we want to or not, as ultimately it is our premiums that will be subsidizing this. He has just shifted the weight from the religious employers downstream to every single individual in this country, who pays health insurance premiums to have heath care.

  28. DisturbedMary says:

    Has not our God given us a Biblically stubborn President much like pharaoh?

    Exodus 10 “….Then the LORD said to Moses: Go to Pharaoh, for I have made him and his servants obstinate in order that I may perform these signs of mine among them and that you may recount to your son and grandson how I made a fool of the Egyptians and what signs I did among them, so that you may know that I am the LORD.

  29. It’s about to get ugly….pray…fast….They should get our jail cells ready. I’m not compromising.

  30. MarkJ says:

    The nature of Socialism and Communism is to try to force all citizens into submission, to make all citizens equally complicit and compliant, and to burden every person under the shared yoke of evil.

  31. Sword40 says:

    We just need to tell the “Thug” NO. There is NO compromise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  32. Traductora says:

    The other thing that everyone is missing is that this is essentially the start of a government-funded and (at present) indirectly government-administered population control program that we will all be forced to support and, to one extent or another, participate in. Planned Parenthood has finally achieved its goal.

  33. Fr Deacon Daniel says:

    It’s like we’ve landed in Oz and are being ruled by moral midgetry.

    Perhaps we should all work a little harder to send Kathleen Sabelius back to Kansas…and her little dog too.

  34. Jim Ryon says:

    I don’t see how this changes anything. If insurers are required to cover these services, won’t Catholic institutions still be forced to pay for insurance and therefor the services. The only alternative is self insurance.

  35. Dismas says:

    I don’t believe this is a shift to Plan B. I think this is step 2 in Plan A. If I’m not mistaken this may render lawsuits filed by religious institutions and religiously affiliated organizations null? I wonder if the law suits filed by the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty representing Bellmont Abbey College and EWTN still have grounds to sue?

    Can anyone guess how many Insurance companies will be filing lawsuits on behalf of their insured? I’m guessing zero.

    Time to start petitioning Congress to investigate articles of Impeachment for violations against the 1st Amendment.

  36. wmeyer says:

    Dismas, I agree. And for those of us who may choose to not buy health insurance, but pay the Federal fine, I suspect the collected fines could end up funding abortions, too.

  37. Peggy R says:

    So, not only are there questions about how this would be paid for, ie, by all other customers of the insurer? Somehow it would have to be figured in to the rates for the Catholic entity, I’d think.

    Also, the insurer is to contact the employee. What obligations will the religious entity have to facilitate this communication? I don’t think we’d want to do that at all. And again, what about nonreligious entities that object to providing these medications.

  38. Dismas says:

    In response to the correspondents reaction in the UPDATE 18:00 GMT, I think we’d be much more effective in realizing that not only is Universal Heathcare rooted in socialism, but the HHS mandate tacked on to socialized healthcare is rooted in MARXISM.

    “The bishops must do their homework and understand why this is socialism, why it is immoral and why socialized medicne has always been a privileged means to institute socialism by maiking everybody dependent on graciously granted “rights”.”

  39. Fr Deacon Daniel says:

    Here’s a question: Might this be the opportune moment for a movement led by the Catholic Church involving Catholics, Orthodox, Evangelicals, Jews, Muslims and all people of good will to band together and form their own charitable non-third (or fourth) party health care system? This system would restore health-care to its traditional, non-profit and charitable roots, and would receive not a dime of federal money. I do not know if the provisions of the monstrous Health Care Reform Act allow for this any longer, but it would seem that such a system, which might only begin with a network of clinics in major cities, would provide health care to all those who need it at cost, or slightly above cost, with generous support from all people of good will who could donate funds to support it.

    Any thoughts? Can this still be done in the U.S. under the current regime?

  40. heway says:

    This is not about healthcare. Sister Keehan has taken Catholic out of Hospital Association!
    This is now about the Obama administration winning in November. They lie! We must all put our knees where our mouth is…We have a war to wage and I hope all christians, Jews, etc. unite to fight the antichrist in the White House. Never has your vote been so important.

  41. Andrew says:

    The key to this new rule is the following statement: “The insurance company will be required to offer contraceptive ‘services’ free of charge, without copay, without hassles.” What does this mean? The government can order the insurance company to pay for whatever the Pres deems important? How about providing free toothpaste? Soap, anyone? Water? (Women have to bathe) Can anyone take this seriously?

  42. Liam says:

    “At an early period of the French Revolution there appeared a Sect calling itself Jacobin teaching that all men were equal and free! In the name of their Equality and disorganizing Liberty they trampled under foot the altar and the throne; they stimulated all nations to rebellion and at plunging them ultimately into the horrors anarchy.” – Abbé Augustin Barruel, Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism

    And so now the Jacobins rule these shores…

  43. wmeyer says:

    “without hassles”??? I wonder whether any court has adjudicated the precise legal meaning of “hassle”.

    I bridle when I hear how smart O is. He’s savvy, I will give him that. He’s had years of Chicago training in corrupt admin and Alinsky strategies. But smart? No, I think not. In the absence of a teleprompter, he is lost, and with one, he still makes stunning gaffes. And overall, he feels more like a mouthpiece for whoever is actually writing the program here.

  44. chantgirl says:

    I am disheartened. I have been afraid that the President might offer a “compromise” that would fool the regular Joes in the street, and this is sure to do just that. Bishops, if you’re listening, please remember all of us little Catholics who have no bully pulpit. Please speak out for us and do not fall for this. Many of us will have to stop buying health insurance unless dioceses start to offer an insurance plan that any Catholics in their diocese could buy as well. Unless we can find ethical insurance to buy, we may be giving birth at home, or watching loved ones die of diseases that would bankrupt our families should we have to pay out-of-pocket. This compromise is cunning, evil, and premeditated. Obama nows gets people more under the thumb of government and makes himself look good and balanced to the majority of voters. O God come to our assistance; Lord make haste to help us! This is worse than I thought it would be.

  45. Whether this “blows the cost of policies through the roof” remains to be seen. The Washington Post has a piece today claiming that contraception coverage costs only about $20 a person. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-catch-in-obamas-contraceptives-compromise/2012/02/10/gIQA5mbG4Q_blog.html

    I’m curious to see the bishops’ reactions in the coming days.

  46. JohnE says:

    ‘if this “accommodation” was already studied in the past, why was it not adopted in the first place?’

    I think Obama started with as much legislative chutzpah he thought he could possibly get away with, and then slowly pretend to make compromises until most of those who voted for him before come back on board.

  47. The Catholic Church in the U.S. should form its own insurance company, or self-insure. That company should refuse to pay for birth control. All dioceses should use this insurance company company.

  48. Dismas says:

    @ Fr Deacon Daniel and Timothy Mulligan — Great idea! I would think seeking the Knights of Columbus counsel regarding getting started our own form of charitable non-third (or fourth) party health care system or own insurance company would be most effective?

  49. Dismas says:

    Knights of Columbus http://www.kofc.org/en/about/index.html

    Learn About Us

    I want to join!

    Thanks to the efforts of Father Michael J. McGivney, assistant pastor of St. Mary’s Church in New Haven and some of his parishioners, the Connecticut state legislature on March 29, 1882, officially chartered the Knights of Columbus as a fraternal benefit society. The Order is still true to its founding principles of charity, unity and fraternity.

    The Knights was formed to render financial aid to members and their families. Mutual aid and assistance are offered to sick, disabled and needy members and their families. Social and intellectual fellowship is promoted among members and their families through educational, charitable, religious, social welfare, war relief and public relief works.

    The history of the Order shows how the foresight of Father Michael J. McGivney, whose cause for sainthood is being investigated by the Vatican, brought about what has become the world’s foremost Catholic fraternal benefit society. The Order has helped families obtain economic security and stability through its life insurance, annuity and long-term care programs, and has contributed time and energy worldwide to service in communities.

    The Knights of Columbus has grown from several members in one council to more than 14,000 councils and 1.8 million members throughout the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Mexico, Poland, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Cuba, Guatemala, Guam and Saipan.

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