You are viewing an old blog post! That means that links will be broken, and images may be missing.

February 15, 2012

How the State Makes YOU Pay for “Free” Stuff

Quote of the Day: “There are good reasons that your car insurance company doesn’t add $100 per year to your premium and then cover oil changes, and that your health insurance doesn’t charge $50 more per year and cover toothpaste. You’d have to fill out mountains of paperwork, the oil-change and toothpaste markets would become much less competitive, and you’d end up spending more.” – John H. Cochrane

Last Friday, the Obama Administration decided to “accommodate” religious organizations that object to providing birth control coverage in their health insurance plans.

For the reasons explained in the letter below, we believe EVERYONE should be “accommodated.” Repeal Obamacare (http://tinyurl.com/7tq73aa), and NO ONE would have to live by its intrusive and expensive mandates.

That’s why I sent this letter to Congress using DownsizeDC.org’s Repeal Obamacare campaign.

The hard-wired message says simply…

Please repeal Obamacare.

I added these remarks.

The Individual Mandate, which forces me to carry Federally-approved health insurance, is an affront to fundamental freedoms and the Constitution. That alone is sufficient reason to repeal the mis-named “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (Obamacare).

But it’s not the only reason. 

The now-abandoned birth control requirement for religious institutions is just one more example of the stupidity and abuses of Obamacare.

I agree that faith-based employers shouldn’t be required to provide birth control coverage if they believe it’s immoral. I’m glad the Obama Administration made an accommodation for that reason.

But how is it fair that EVERY OTHER employer is required to provide birth control coverage?

The birth control mandate reminds me of state laws that mandated coverage like… (https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/inter-state-insurance/)

* Maternity care for single males
* Infertility for people who don’t want a family
* Alcohol treatment for people who don’t drink

Such insane mandates are what helped make my health insurance so expensive in the first place!

A government mandate does NOT make something “free.” SOMEBODY has to pay for it.

As John H. Cochrane explains… (http://tinyurl.com/884etyc)

* Every mandated increase in coverage means an increase in premiums employers have to pay
* Employers pass those costs on to US by cutting wages and/or by raising prices

So who is really paying for the “free” birth control? Every other health insurance consumer – including the elderly, gays, and celibates who have no need for birth control.

I’m paying for it, too. We are ALL paying for it!

And that’s not all. Cochrane further explains…

* If pills are “free” under insurance, drug companies have no incentive to come up with cheaper versions.
* Nor do they have incentive to develop safer, more convenient, male-centered or nonprescription birth control.
* And by making pills free but not condoms, the government may inadvertently be contributing to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

Providing a narrow accommodation to faith-based employers solves NONE of these problems.

Worse, this is just one of what will likely be a series of controversial and expensive mandates on employers as Obamcare is implemented. No wonder hiring stalled after Obamacare was passed in 2010. (http://tinyurl.com/6o3qga7)

Health care, insurance rates, and pharmaceuticals would all see drops in prices if the federal government got out of the way. And the unemployment rate would also fall. To help make this happen, repeal Obamacare!

END LETTER

If you agree, you can send your letter using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.

Feel free to borrow from or copy-and-paste the above letter. And if you know people who are frustrated with Obamacare, forward this Dispatch to them!

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

NOTE: Another reason DownsizeDC.org’s “Educate the Powerful System” is the very best congressional contact system on the web…

We don’t deliver emails! Rather, we take your letter and submit it to the respective web forms of your two Senators and Representative. Your letter is delivered, so that the receiving office knows that it’s hearing from a constituent.

We want as many people as possible to use this service. So we don’t charge anyone to use the EPS. But that doesn’t mean it’s free. And we’re planning to supplement it with additional tools to make YOU even more powerful.

The best way to get these tools to you, to plan ahead and succeed, is rather incremental. Please start a monthly pledge. You can give just a dollar to cover your subscription. You can sponsor five subscribers with $5, or ten with $10 — you can pledge any dollar amount you wish. The average pledge is $14 per month. The largest pledge is $250. Please start or increase your pledge today. 

If your comment is off-topic for this post, please email us at feedback@downsizedc.org

comments

Post a Comment


Notice: Undefined variable: user_ID in /var/www/archive.downsizedc.org/wordpress/wp-content/themes/downsizer/comments.php on line 89

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*
 
© 2008–2019 DownsizeDC.org