It's a simple formula, really: take hot button issues like birth control (funny to think something as once-innocuous as birth control is now controversial) and "religious freedom" and put those out front in order to mask your real intentions.
The Hobby Lobby case was just a fingernail working the corner of the Obamacare label, getting it ready to peel off one little shred at a time. Because what corporate America really doesn't want to pay for is your heart disease and your cancer and your diabetes. Those diseases used to be rare. But not only are the numbers skyrocketing, those are also your big ticket items. An IUD is a drop in the bucket compared to any one of your big ticket items.
Why do you think companies are not hiring smokers? Or implementing those darling "wellness programs," in which participants fill out surveys about their body measurements and consumption of cured meats and alcohol, and reaching healthy "goals" is tied to lower deductibles? All that started long before Obama made the scene. Now that the ACA is mandating what will be covered, corporate America must pull out all the stops. And the GOP is happy to assist, starting with something that's easy to get their troops behind: all those silly girls and their birth control pills.
But Erin! It's different with Hobby Lobby! That's about contraception and religious beliefs! My illness is different!
Oh really? Here's an equation for you:
If: Diabetes = Obesity
And: Obesity = Gluttony
And Gluttony = One Of Your Seven Deadly (GASP) Sins
Then: Diabetes = Sin
But Erin! That's not scientific!
Neither is calling an IUD an abortifacient, which didn't matter to SCOTUS one bit.
So to all those celebrating this win in the fight for "religious freedom," you are a prop in the toolbox of Big Business, obediently hammering the inaugural nail in your own coffin--with oodles of enthusiasm, no less.
In ten years (five?), you'll be happily filing for an ACA subsidy when corporate America washes its hands of your insurance. You'll be happily backing an individual mandate. Or voting for the candidate whose running on a "single payer system" platform.
Until then, here's some simple advice: Quit smoking. Lose 20 pounds. Stop drinking so much.
Can't do any of that? Then for chrissake, go for a walk.
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| The ugliest walking shoe in all of the land, that of Erin O'Brien |
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22 comments:
Single Payor.
Single Payor + ERA even better.
RJ
Erin....there's so much I want to say here in agreement with you. But you already know that.
So I thought I would point out a rather funny thing. While I've been camped here in Oregon, the local papers have been mistakenly referring to this as the "Hotel Lobby" issue. WTF?
It took me a while to realize what they were actually referring to. I actually read three different papers and one online source calling it "Hotel" Lobby.
I thought there was some new thing going on in the hospitality industry. Argh!
(Ha! The WV for me to leave this comment is "1984". Somehow fitting in an obscure way.)
I wonder if Hotel Lobby is really a hot pillow motel. If no such entity exists, I'm a little bit sadder.
In other news, I hope when the actuaries do the math, they find that a policy that does not cover birth control costs more than one that does. You know ... Increased pregnancy rates, prenatal care, more dependents ...
Indeed you are probably correct. Businesses offer benefits to encourage people to work for them. Over time these benefits have become a given, and a serious profit burden (see UAW contracts for example). I am not sure single payer is the best option, but my mistrust of big government is legion. And no, I do not have an answer or alternative to offer.
As the ObamaCare employer mandate kicks in there is no doubt many medium and small companies will dump their insurance and push the employees to the exchanges. I suspect my company will follow suit.
One thing, we should recognize that Hobby Lobby paid for 14 kinds of birth control pills before the SCOTUS ruling and will continue to do so. Those who suggest HL wants to deny women basic hormonal healthcare are either mistaken in their facts, or obfuscating the truth for their own ends.
joe
"Those who suggest HL wants to deny women basic hormonal healthcare are either mistaken in their facts, or obfuscating the truth for their own ends."-joe
Important omission here. They want to deny certain forms of contaception not based on science but on religious belief.
It has already been addressed by Ginsburg and commentators in the media but this whole thing will blow up when a closely held Moslem company attempts to impose their religious beliefs on a white, Christian woman.
RJ
There are women who should never get pregnant for medical reasons--maybe they have MS or some other medical condition that makes any pregnancy risky. The simplest and most effective birth control for them is an IUD. Doctors recommend them all the time.
Say the woman can't afford the $500-$1000 for an IUD just because their boss no likey and they are essentially forced to use a less effective method and accept more risk to their health.
What if the chemical options offered by Hobby Lobby adversely effect her condition? Would you really tell a 35-year-old woman with cancer to accept more risk of pregnancy than necessary against her will? Or maybe she should just take one aspirin and hold it between her knees.
ha ha ha.
So I guess she has to cough up $500 while the clerk over at Michael's in the exact same situation doesn't.
As for single payer, we already have it: Medicare. Tighten it up, add healthy younger people to the pool and watch what happens.
Eat leas. Move more. buy your own insurance. They're still selling Obamacare aren't they?
Just read an interesting hypothetical on another site:
"What if Reverend Jeremiah Wright owned Hobby Lobby?"
RJ
Hypothetical Hobby Lobby lawsuit #1.
"When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was an emotional wreck. I couldn't bear the thought of children because I was sure I wouldn't live long enough to see them grow up.
The doctor urged me to get an IUD, but with all the other medical bills, I couldn't afford it and Hobby Lobby's religious policies meant my insurance wouldn't cover it. But Hobby Lobby's insurance did cover a tubal ligation, so that's what I did.
That was five years ago.
I am now cancer free and all my husband and I want is a baby, but natural conception is no longer an option. Our own religious beliefs preclude any other way.
If only I'd gotten that IUD, I could have had it removed. We'd already be working on a baby."
A jury will award her a zillion dollars.
Pardon me, but paying the cost of war is against my religious beliefs. So...I would like my $4,000,000,000,000.00 back, please.
Single Prayer System.
mr
Single payer? i have yet to meet anyone who liked medicare -- patent or doctor. And the other Government-sponsored single payer -- The VA, well enough said.
joe
"Although only 8 percent of people with Medicare rated their insurance as fair or poor, 20 percent of adults covered by an employer-sponsored plan and 33 percent of those who purchase their own insurance reported dissatisfaction with their coverage."
Source
Per Gallup (Nov. 2012):
"Medicaid and Medicare recipients' satisfaction with what they pay for healthcare has risen to a new high the last two years, at 76%, while those who have private insurance have become slightly less satisfied, at 57%."
like we should we expect anything else from a body which just allowed all big money to "share " their wealth with any person running for any office for any amount of $$ for their support.setting us back 100 years. Let's keep our politicians hands off anyone's reproductive choice.
@Joe I am a person who GREATLY benefitted from Medicare, in conjunction with BC/BS. During my work life, I would alternate between resenting that part of my paycheque which endowed my stake in Medicare and realizing in the back of my mind that there was an infinitesimal chance that one day I just might need what the biweekly stoppage was endowing. Although I never had believed that what actually happened to me would happen, I now am glad that Medicare turned out to be there.
After I retired, I was knocked off my bicycle by a dog and walked around with what was quite nearly a broken neck, wondering if my puzzling numbness and loss of coördination was some neurological disease that had lain in wait for me all of my life. I finally sought medical help and found the nexus between my accident and my progressing disability. I swear that I could nearly see the panic in the eyes of the surgeon who eventually went into my spine (twice), leaving behind ounces of titanium in my neck. If he had had his way, I would have stayed at the hospital on no notice at all. I had to go home, though, to get a few necessities and to arrange for the care of my dogs. After the two surgeries, I am still not back to my status quo ante, but much better than I had been.
There is no way that I could have financed my course of medical treatment, which amounted to about two hundred fifty thousands of dollars. I would have been burdened with debt until I took my last breath. Medicare and BC/BS saved me from that. So, to you, who claimed to have no acquaintance with anyone who liked Medicare, I put myself forward.
Senex Ægypti Parvi
As usual I have nothing cogent to add. My life is consumed with ordering the proper grit flex-hone for an ancient set of Nordic cylinders, using Loctite 620 to secure a new bearing in a very old and worn Teutonic bearing seat, and coaxing a sinister and decrepit looking row of Brit carbs back to life with fresh fuel, needles and seats. Fahrvergnugen.
Perhaps the lack of carbs in my own diet as I reverse diabesity is the cause, but any such mentioning of the word "Lobby" inevitably brings to mind the following trivial event. When I was developing insulin resistance back in the 80's by consuming vast quantities of rum and coke, we would then all pile into a corner Chinese restaurant for takeout.
A certain piece of work in our company had finally tripped the distinguished and long-suffering maître-d's trigger one night, who bellowed in a rich and authoritative Shanghai/Cleveland-St. Clair Avenue at 3am-fusion-brogue: "Him no coming inhyar no mo! He must wait in Yobby! Wait in Yobby!"
Hilarious, and excellent spare ribs.
"i have yet to meet anyone who liked medicare"-joe
You need to get out more.
RJ
@ philbilly--You always seem like a pretty tough fella. But eating carburetors? Hardcore, Amigo.
Usta wash 'em down wit Gatorade and Everclear back in the day.
Now, I fire up the Nutribullet; Strawberries,blueberries,kale,
carrots, banana,walnuts, chia seeds and cinnamon. I swear it gets me high.
"As usual I have nothing cogent to add."
Quite the contrary Mr. Phil Billy.
@ philbilly-Gets YOU high? hail, yes boy-I got a contact buzz reading it...
MR
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