GOP Governors Refusing To Expand Medicaid Could Cost Their States’ Employers More Than $1 Billion

The Republican governors who are refusing to accept Obamacare’s optional expansion of the Medicaid program typically cite financial concerns; despite all evidence to the contrary, GOP leaders claim that accepting federal funds to extend health coverage to additional low-income American will end up being too costly for their states. According to a new study, however, they have it backwards. Continuing to resist health reform could be significantly financially riskier than simply agreeing to expand Medicaid.

Each governor resisting Medicaid expansion could end up costing the employers in their state over $1 billion dollars, a new Jackson Hewitt Tax Service report finds. That’s because, since the health reform law seeks to ensure that everyone has access to insurance, Obamacare holds businesses with more than 50 employees responsible for making sure their workers have adequate benefits. Employers won’t be penalized for failing to offer health care to their low-wage workers if those employees can access public insurance through Medicaid — but if states don’t expand their Medicaid pools, the workers who have no other way to get health care could end up costing their employers:

A clause in the 2010 health-care overhaul penalizes some employers when their workers aren’t able to obtain affordable medical coverage through the company. Employers can avoid those fees if their workers qualify for Medicaid as part of an expansion that as many as 22 states have rejected, according to a report today by Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc.

Without Medicaid, a “shared responsibility” payment of as much as $3,000 may be triggered for each employee who can’t get insurance through their company. In Texas, the largest state to refuse to increase Medicaid, employers may be liable for as much as $448 million in fines, the study found. In Florida, where the legislature has refused an expansion supported by Governor Rick Scott, employers may pay as much as $219 million. [...]

Of course, this won’t come as welcome news to many of the companies that have so far gotten away with denying their workers health benefits. Employers are decrying Obamacare’s “shared responsibility” provision for potentially raising their costs, threatening to slash their workers’ hours, freeze hiring and lay off staff, or raise the prices for their products.

But the health law is simply trying to work within an employer-based insurance system that hasn’t historically been able to ensure that poor Americans can access the benefits they need. If low-wage workers can’t qualify for public insurance programs because their governors won’t expand Medicaid’s eligibility levels, then they will need to be able to get health care from their employers. And if their bosses won’t provide it, they’ll have to turn to the subsidized insurance on Obamacare’s health exchanges — triggering the employer fine.

Even aside from Medicaid expansion’s potential to help alleviate the “shared responsibility” fee, several reports have projected that the states choosing to expand their Medicaid programs will actually save money by doing so. The financial benefits are largely thanks to the increased federal funding that will free up states’ funds for other purposes, but also because of the reduced strain of providing fewer health services for the uninsured once more people are covered.

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Virginia’s Ken Cuccinelli Thinks Women Will Back Him Because He Has Empathy For Mentally Ill

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R), the Republican nominee-apparent for governor this year, was asked by U.S. News how he planned to appeal to female voters. Rather than face up to his record of opposition to women’s reproductive rights, Cuccinelli told the publication that he thought women would vote for him because he’d worked to help the mentally ill:

US NEWS: [Can the GOP appeal] to women?

CUCCINELLI: I’m a person who appeals to women with a variety of issues that they just happen to care more about that I also happen to care about. I’ve worked to improve mental health and worked to help the mentally ill for over a decade and a half, including when I was in the legislature. Women’s issues aren’t just abortion. Women’s issues are everything women care about. And I have an awful lot of issues that I appeal to women on, just as a natural course.

While his empathy for mentally ill citizens is admirable, his record doesn’t hold up. Cuccinelli spent much of his tenure as Attorney General fighting against the Affordable Care Act — a plan that expanded mental health parity — even though the American Psychiatric Association called the landmark health care law “good for patients.”

He has also attacked Medicare as “despicable” and an attack on American freedom — despite the fact that the program provides mental health coverage for millions of America’s seniors.

(ht: Blue Virginia)

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Obamacare Changes Start With Your 2012 Tax Return

For many Americans, the health reform law passed in 2010 will forevermore tie their health to their taxes.

And even though the big changes required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care don't start until 2014, the tax impact starts now.

"We're undergoing some of the biggest changes to the tax code in 20 years," said Meg Sutton, senior adviser for tax and healthcare services at tax preparation firm H&R Block Inc. "People need to start understanding how it will impact them."

For starters, beginning in January 2014, every American will be required to have health coverage, and many will qualify for government help to pay for it. Whether or not you do will depend on the income you report to the Internal Revenue Service on your 2012 tax return.

Fewer than one-in four Americans understood that when H&R Block did a survey last fall, but an estimated 26 million people could be affected when they begin to turn to new health exchanges to buy their coverage for next year. Block is making a point of counseling their clients on whether they will qualify for subsidies.

Some people who are on the border may be able to reduce their 2012 income by making a last-minute retirement account contribution, for example, so they can get the extra help.

CARROTS AND STICKS

The new law's individual mandate depends on income-dependent subsidies and penalties to make it work.

This will primarily affect people who don't have insurance or buy their own and are likely to look to new state exchanges for their policies. When they choose their plans, they will receive tax credits if the cost of the coverage is deemed too high relative to their income.

Those who don't buy coverage for 2014 will face penalties of $95 or 1 percent of household income, whichever is greater. That will increase each year to $695, or 2.5 percent, in 2016.

Subsidies will be available for families who earn as much as 400 percent of the federal poverty rate - roughly $45,000 for an individual or $92,000 for a family of four. For example, a family of four making $70,000 could expect a government tax credit of $5,504, which would cover about 45 percent of its insurance costs. That's according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's Health Reform Subsidy Calculator. (here )

GETTING INCOME RIGHT

Some taxpayers may run into trouble this year by underestimating their income and receiving a larger subsidy than they are ultimately eligible for, says Mark Steber, chief tax officer for Jackson Hewitt. "They will owe a large payment back to the IRS" down the road.

The formula for calculating subsidy eligibility adds some foreign income and tax-exempt interest income to adjusted gross income, so people may have little taxable income but still make too much to qualify for the subsidies. There's another wrinkle: Even if you do everything right in 2012, you could end up owing some subsidy back on your 2014 taxes if you earn more then. But you won't have to worry about that until 2015.

Make no mistake, though — the government wants to sweeten the pot for those buying insurance on their own as much as it can. Self-employed workers can still deduct the cost of their policies. And while workers may start seeing how much their companies are spending for their healthcare on their 2012 W-2 forms, that amount won't be considered taxable income.

WRITE-OFFS WILL GET TOUGHER

The tax code will get less generous when it comes to writing off healthcare expenses other than insurance. The 2012 tax year is the last one for which medical costs over 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) can be deducted. Starting in 2013, that figure jumps to 10 percent. (An exception is individuals or spouses who turn 65 before the end of 2013, who will retain the 7.5 percent floor through the 2016 tax year.)

Finally, all employees will also find contributions to pre-tax health flexible-spending accounts capped at $2,500 this year. Working spouses, however, can each open an FSA with their respective employers, which would allow them to put aside a total of $5,000.

NEW TAXES, TOO

Other provisions of the Affordable Care Act will add to some taxpayers' burdens.

High-income earners now pay an additional 0.9 percent Medicare payroll tax on income over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. That comes on top of the previous Medicare tax of 1.45 percent.

Also starting in 2013, high earners pay a 3.8 percent Medicare tax on interest, dividends, capital gains, rent and royalty income.

And while employers have been withholding the extra payroll taxes from high-earning workers since January 2013, some people will now have to file estimated taxes as well, says Mark Raschiatore, partner at accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen.

Those who have high investment income, or couples who together earn more than $250,000 but aren't having the extra 0.9 percent taken out of their paychecks should consider paying extra taxes quarterly to the IRS, lest they end up owing extra - and penalties when they file their 2013 taxes.

There is a lot to learn. Most filers should use the next several months to educate themselves on — and budget for — changes ahead in 2014, says Sutton. It'll be good preparation for reading all the small print on health exchanges.

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Food Intolerance and Allergies

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DAY'S END ROUNDUP

FROM THE BLOGS

Bobby Jindal slayed 'em at the Gridiron Club dinner
Mary Katherine Ham of Hot Air relays one of the funnier routines of the night by the current Louisiana governor.

Sequester is proof that Washington thinks we are all idiots
Daniel Gross of The Daily Beast writes that we don't need the sequester to make a dent in the deficit — we're already finding other quiet ways to do that.

The Feminine Mystique and feminists' mistake
The Foundry's Collette Caprara wonders if female "liberation" helped lead to the disintegration of marriage.

Rubio: Denying marriage rights to gays 'does not make me a bigot'
Igor Volsky of ThinkProgress believes the Florida senator is stuck in the past with his views on same-sex marriage and rights.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES

Obama tells Senate GOP he's not setting a trap to win back the House
According to The Hill's Alexander Bolton, the president tried to find common ground with Senate Republicans during Thursday's private meeting.

Jeb Bush asks to be left out of CPAC straw poll
The former governor thinks it's too early to be thinking about 2016 ambitions, The Hill's Cameron Joseph reports.

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Template:Mainpageright

Contrast the regal behavior of Barack Hussein Obama with the humble behavior of George Washington. [1]

Expert says that the discovery of a 20-year long rainfall in Ireland points to the Great Flood of the Bible being historical.[2]

Why do so many faux Christians deny the Great Flood and try to turn it into a non-Great Flood?[3] Did Jesus, Peter and Moses lie?[4]

Animals are where they are today, not because they evolved there, nor yet because of continental drift, but because they went there after the Great Flood. [5]

A description of "Common Core Education," the harm it can do, and a list of New Jersey primary candidates pledged to stop it. [6]

15 young people are volunteering to read the second draft of the Question evolution! campaign book for middle school students. Also, a Christian is going into full time creation vs. evolution ministry in June of 2013 and is interesting in volunteering for the campaign.[7]

Outspokenly Christian Kevin Durant gives $1 million to the tornado victims. Durant uaually outscores LeBron, but the liberal media do not promote outspoken Christians.

Why does Glenn Beck, who loves to chart conspiracies on his famous chalkboards, ignore a conspiracy right under his nose? [8]

28 million Americans will be caught in a "massive game of health coverage pingpong" under ObamaCare, and even the liberal media are beginning to panic about this. [9]

Classic communist tactic by the Obama Administration: it files a document in court alleging that a reporter at Fox News is a possible co-conspirator in the "crime" of informing the public. [10] In fact this goes back further – to Henry II. Are we all Thomas Becket now? [11]

Teen awarded for improved capacitor - Intel gave a $50,000 scholarship to a girl whose titanium dioxide capacitor can store almost three times as much electrical energy as previous capacitors and is intended as a battery alternative. [12]

Most mainstream media got the story wrong, claiming incorrectly that her invention can charge a cell phone battery in 30 seconds. (Charging a battery too quickly reduces its life, which is why Motorola and Samsung and the rest keep the amperage low.)

Franklin Graham, one of America's most prominent evangelical Christians, says the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service included two of his ministries.[13]

Are many evangelical Christian churches primarily growing in America due to birth rates or due to evangelism?[14]

"Quiverfull" evangelical Christianity, which does not believe in contraception, is now spreading in the UK.[15] In the past 30 years, the number of Anabaptists in North America, including the Amish, has grown significantly, from 313,000 baptized members in 1978 to more than 535,000 in 2010. [16]

Unfortunately for militant atheists, secularist philosophy breeds sub-replacement levels of fertility. See: Decline of atheism

Obama says black men cannot use racism to explain away their failures. [17]

CDC says the number of children being diagnosed with mental disorders has been steadily growing. [18]

Reuters reports: "Europe is in the midst of its longest recession since it began keeping records in 1995 — even surpassing the calamity that hit the region in the financial crisis of 2008-2009."[19]

Biblical creationism is growing in Europe and its growth rate will accelerate amidst Europe's economic woes.[20]

The UK has experienced one lost economic decade, and it's about to enter a second. [21] When is the UK going to remove Charles Darwin off its currency?[22]

Turkey, a world leader in anti-evolutionism, had its Moody’s credit rating upgraded to investment-grade quality. [23][24]

Imagine how it would be doing if it adopted Christian creationism over Islamic creationism.[25] See: Protestant work ethic

More Question evolution! campaign news from Canada. The stomachs of Darwinists are going to be tied into knots in 2013. [26]

Question evolution! campaign book draft is off to California student readers tonight. Also, new proof and evidence that 2013 is a better year for creationism.[27]

In addition, an atheist wiki still appeals to atheist nerds.

What is the real IRS scandal? It's the tax code itself. [28]

Government-promoted "powerball" gambling exploits and takes millions from the poor, but does not fool conservatives.

A video was recently produced on the topic "Why Christianity and the Bible are true." [29]

Abortion: an indispensable right or violence against women?[30]

A New Jersey activist promotes the primarying of a RINO State Senator. See his side-by-side of a typical RINO and his challenger. [31]

The first rule of grassroots anti-evolution social movements: What's behind us in inane evolutionist commentary is NOT important![32]

Is the Question evolution! campaign entering a new phase? If so, what new tactics are being employed by a Question evolution campaign group?

Bradlee Dean has this scathing commentary on Minnesota's gay "marriage" law. [33]

The Great Flood gained an astronomical fix today. A veteran creation scientist teams up with a veteran CP administrator to use comets to vindicate the Bible – and settle the Biblical chronology dispute. [34]

One reason why Darwinism loving liberal Christianity and the agnosticism/atheism population are headed towards a collapse of their own doing.[35]

The Obama IRS problem just keeps getting bigger.

The director of the tax-exempt determinations office is an Obama donor: [36] IRS agents did what the bosses ordered: [37] IRS denied tax-exempt status of pro-life group on behalf of Planned Parenthood: [38] IRS refused tax-exempt status for pro-Israel and Christian groups; approved it for Muslim organizations: [39] IRS agents illegally seized 60 million medical records: [40] Did the IRS give Mitt Romney's tax returns to Harry Reid? [41]

New amber fossil finds further debunk evolution.[42] "They’re dead ringers for (modern) gall mites" — researcher David Grimaldi

Overrated Sports Star David Beckham was not even good enough to play on Britain's pathetic Olympic soccer team, yet he insists that he is "playing at the highest level" as he announces his retirement. [43] Now he can devote full time to being promoted by the lamestream media.

News update from a Question evolution! campaign blog: "May 15, 2013 was a very BAD day for Darwinism!"[44]

Also, as of today, a Question evolution! blog received 427,864 page views.

A major supply line to Darwinism just suffered a major reversal - college bubble is finally bursting. The infrastructure of Darwinism, atheism, agnosticism and liberalism is crumbling.[45]

Like many second term presidents, Barack Hussein Obama is having scandals arise and he is losing control of events.[46]

A new theory of why secularization occurs.[47]

Liberal politics = massive financial disaster for many California cities, with more bankruptcies expected. [48]

When you have RINOs in the way of real reform, primary them! [49]

The IRS scandal now includes nine Senators, and a liberal outfit that got sensitive information from the IRS on 31 conservative groups. Time for a serious look at tax reform: why do we even need an IRS? [50]

Al Gore still hypes his liberal alarmism: "Our very way of life" is at stake, he insists, "now more than ever before." [51] So why did he sell his TV station for big profits to Big Oil??

The "creationist blogspot squint" repeatedly defeats a timid agnostic and evolutionist who is afraid of debating the creationist biology student VivaYehshua. [52]

An evolutionist has been wildly swinging his rhetorical punches into the air, but he has been hitting thin air. Why is he so afraid of debating VivaYehshua?

Obama, Tyranny, and the Tax Man [53]

Drunken atheist Trekkie makes a bigger fool of himself. Yes, there is something lamer than an atheist who threatens a Bible believer with hellfire.[54]

5 things that will give atheists ulcers.[55]

What "Dr." Kermit Gosnell did in his house-of-horrors clinic is not an anomaly in the abortion industry; it is practice. [56]

A Tea Party activist writes an open letter to State legislators who vote away Second Amendment rights. [57]

PZ Myers, how will we know when atheism has a full-blown nerd crisis? [58]

Myers recently said that atheism is on the "cusp of crisis." Is there a full-blown atheist nerd crisis?

Atheist wiki continues to lose global market share. Also, many of their atheist nerd editors still lose ladies to creationist men![59]

The media already in bed with Obama simply cannot ignore this new scandal: The Obama Administration secretly seized phone records from the Associated Press just prior to the 2012 election. [60][61]

The chilly spring continues to prove the hoax of global warming: "Protect those plants, widespread chance of frost and freeze in N.J. tonight." [62]

Kermit Gosnell stands convicted. But how many others share his guilt? Mainstream Media, maybe? [63]

The scandal at the IRS gets wider every time. This could be the biggest scandal of all. [64]

"Orde Wingate and the Night Raiders: Bring 'em He...Heaven" by Bishop Bert [65]

Another amazing breakthrough for Adult stem cells: Growing Teeth. [66] Still no breakthroughs for immoral Embryonic stem cells.

The IRS is now caught red-handed, in targeting conservative, Tea Party, and pro-Israel groups – and lying about it. But did the Obama administration throw out this chum to distract people from the Benghazi affair? [67]

The homosexual agenda is being pushed into the immigration bill, and it is likely that Dems will cave to the gay demands. [68]

"Sergio Garcia rips Tiger Woods," observing that "he's not the nicest guy on tour." Yet the liberal media continue to cover for Woods, and even lash into Garcia for criticizing him. [69]

Talking animals in the Old Testament. Also, does Leviticus mention dinosaurs?[70]

5 truths that cause evolutionists and atheists to fly into uncontrollable bursts of rage. [71]

Is their anything more lame than an atheist threatening a Bible believer with hellfire?

5 reasons why Christian evangelism is more thoughtful and effective than Darwinist and atheist evangelism efforts. [72]

7 reasons why the growth prospects of the egotistical, socially challenged, atheist nerd population is bleak.[73]

We knew it all along, and now the Internal Revenue Service admits: the IRS plays favorites among applicants for tax exemptions. And a few "un-favorites" besides. [74]

A Tea Party activist asks: did Barack Obama and his administration commit manslaughter and obstruction of justice in the Benghazi affair? [75]

Sociologists say that the American Christian Right are the potters and American atheists are the clay. Also, get three coffins ready. [76]

The families of several Navy SEALs killed in action reveal some stunning – and criminal – acts by the Obama administration. [77]

The Benghazi affair blows up in the Obama administration's collective face. ABC News admits: the State Department sanitized what the CIA told them about it. The White House squirms. [78]

Andrew Schlafly speaks out against ObamaCare.[79]

Is the unborn child a person? What do the obstetricians think?[80]

Atheist wiki hit the socially challenged, atheist nerd ceiling! Their global market share has fallen in 2013.[81]

Christian winners vs. atheist losers. Who is going to win? [82]

The latest in ultrasound technology will benefit the Pro-life cause: 3-D holograms of children in the womb. [83]

A two front war on atheism? [84]

Are biblical creationists picking up the pace of their evangelism?[85]

Is a pack of ravenous biblical creation dire wolves on the prowl ripping big chunks of meat out of their Darwinist bunkum prey?

CBS News doesn't like one of its own making a thorough investigation into the Benghazi affair: [86]

Let's see how liberal pro-choicers spin this absolute insanity: [87]

Cal Thomas writes about the taxation of internet sales and the Marketplace Fairness Act bill being proposed. [88]

Violent video games, which liberal websites defend and promote despite the games' obvious connection with the Newtown massacre, continue to rack up billion-dollar profits. [89]

Ruth Bell Graham once said that if God does not judge America, He must apologize to Sodom. Apart from whether a man (or woman) can judge God, Mrs. Graham had a point. [90]

3 humorous creation vs. evolution events. [91]

Liberal "psychic" Sylvia Browne, the perennial guest of the Montel Williams Show, predicted in 2004 that Amanda Berry was dead. Yet she clams up after Amanda is rescued from a house of horror a couple days ago. [92]

Uh oh, liberal claptrap at HuffPost is not so great after all for AOL: "AOL Inc. (AOL), the digital publisher that owns the Huffington Post and TechCrunch, fell the most in five months after reporting first-quarter profit that missed estimates." [93]

The biblical creation attack dog is metamorphosizing into a fierce and tenacious dire wolf predator. Darwinism will be ripped to shreds. [94]

WHat does "honoring the office" of President of the United States mean, when the current officeholder behaves dishonorably? Theodore Roosevelt had an answer. [95]

Does Barack Obama love being a "divider-in-chief"? Or has he laid a deeper plan? A Tea Party activist examines all the actions of this de facto President and sees an ominous parallel. [96]

Will the Benghazi attack hearings change the game for Barack Obama? Or for Hillary Clinton? [97]

Liberal double standard, as they held Mitt Romney to a different standard than Al Gore, despite how the global warming alarmist Gore is now richer than Romney.[98]

Thomas Paine once made a ringing call to leadership. Where are the conservative leaders of today? [99]

"The 'House of David': Don't be quick to fault the Bible!" by Bishop Bert [100]

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died from "blunt trauma to his head and torso," presumably by being driven over by his own fleeing brother. [101] Yet still no word about drugs that were likely found in pot-smoker Dzhokhar's system.

Is school choice impossible in some States? Only if the voters let it stay that way. [102]

If you are not a biblical creationist, you are behaving illogically.[103]

"Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such an hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic". - Evolutionist Dr. Scott Todd [104]

Naturalistic/atheistic thinkers, no matter how much they would like to think that it has lasted forever, inevitably come up against the fact that the very laws of the universe point to a supernatural beginning.[105]

Notice that the arguments for evolution amount to logical fallacy—and censorship, not true science. [106]

RINO Backer "Paul Ryan flip-flops, now supports gay adoption." [107] The Republican House leadership moves closer to quietly accepting same-sex marriage.

A Tea Party activist does some sober stock-taking on the battle for American liberty. [108]

Liberals will continue making billions by invading people's privacy, and block a California bill that would have protected the public: "Silicon Valley uses growing clout to kill a digital privacy bill." [109]

Traitors among us, in the United States Senate, who voted for the UN Arms Trade Treaty (which failed – so far). [110]

Overrated Sports Star "Kobe Bryant in court battle with mother over memorabilia." [111] His mother has been paying $1,500/mth to store it, but now the liberal-promoted player tries to stop his own mom from cashing in!

Record-setting May snowstorm blankets several states, further disproving the liberal hoax that there is a crisis of global warming. [112]

Free speech for Christianity wins, and Mikey Weinstein loses. The Pentagon announced today that service members will not be punished for sharing their religious faith. "Members of our military should not be denied the very freedoms they fight to defend. Freedom of religion and speech are paramount among those freedoms," said ADF Legal Counsel Joseph La Rue. [113]

"How to Not stone a Rebellious Son: Reforming according to the Word of God" by Bishop Bert [114]

After Barack Hussein Obama invoked God at a Planned Parenthood event, an activist sharply reminds him: had Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, had her way, he would not exist. [115]

The Ides of May 2013 is definitely going to be nightmare for evolutionists.[116]

British Darwinists, brace yourselves for the grand announcement of May 15, 2013 to be given at 5:00pm Greenwich Mean Time. You will not want to miss it!

A hate-filled atheist wants Christians stopped from sharing the Gospel in the military, under penalty of court-martial for "sedition and treason". [117] Could this be what Obama wants done? [118]

Theistic evolutionists are sleeping with the enemy and getting "fleas of doubt".[119] Leading theistic evolutionist says: "My belief in God is tinged with doubts...".

The New York Times says that the pro-evolution website Wikipedia has a sexism problem. Is there a nerd crisis at Wikipedia?[120]

Compare Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama side by side. Who is the elitist? [121]

Return of the Twinkies - No, they're not the flying monkeys from "The Wizard of Oz." The Hostess company is going back in business, after union demands forced them into bankruptcy last year. (WashTimes)

Which country was among those which tied for last place as being among the most corrupt countries in the world? An atheism and evolution loving country of course - North Korea.[122]

Give it up, liberals: "Arizona lawmakers pass bill making silver, gold legal tender." [123]

Young people love anti-evolution and pro-creation tracts, magazines and books. Darwinism indoctrination is stale and boring. [124]

The NFL has become just another politically correct, liberal organization, as it ostracizes the outspokenly Christian Tim Tebow. Why should the public approve paying for NFL stadiums, as in the upcoming vote in Miami?

Is the soul of America in jeopardy? Why is the military cleaning itself of Judeo-Christian influence? [125]

Obama administration threatening Benghazi whistleblowers (Washington Times, April 30, 2013)

Three of the Doolittle Raiders hold their last reunion on the base where they trained. [126]

Olé! Olé! Olé! Hispanic American creationism is winning mucho battles over Hispanic American Darwinism.[127]

Evolutionists, you will have a lot of splainin' to do on why you can't answer the 15 questions for evolutionists satisfactorily.

Time magazine reports that theological liberalism gained ground during sexual revolution, but conservative Christians are winning now through higher procreation and re-evangelization of West.[128]

Victory! Liberals are now openly admitting defeat! And they have no plan to turn things around!

China's atheist leaders are still panicking and trying to use heavy-handed measures to stop the explosive growth of Chinese Christianity.[129]

A fascinating look at an area in China with 70,000 hills from a global flood perspective.[130]

Liberal global warming scam is proven false, again: "more than 1,100 snowfall records and 3,400 cold records have been set across the nation so far in April." [131] That's not the global warming crisis that Al Gore and other liberals claimed.

Why won't the Republican Party of New Jersey even adopt the national Republican platform? A Tea Party activists sounds a RINO alert. [132]

Volunteers spent thousands of dollars on a successful Question evolution! campaign event and pro-biblical creation outreach. [133]

Kermit Gosnell's trial may go to the jury this week. But does he really do anything that abortion advocates would not want to see done? [134]

"Man stabs 4 choir members during Sunday mass at Albuquerque Catholic church." [135] It's unfortunate that parishioners did not have loaded guns to stop the stranger.

More bad news for liberals, pro-aborts and Darwinists - religioustolerance.org has lost a LOT of web traffic![136]

Why do people still believe what Barack Obama says? [137]

The ricin letters case has taken a strange new twist. Previous suspect (a Democrat) cleared; current suspect (a Republican) charged. Is there a personal feud between the two? [138]

Give it up, liberals: Kansas has the most conservative legislature in its history, and it's not going back to its "moderate", less successful past. [139]

A call back to God for Christians of every stripe, after the Boston Marathon Bombings. [140]

Secular Belgium is crumbling. A golden age of Belgium creationism is dawning.[141]

Also, North American creationism will continue to expand. Will the Harvard University evolutionary biology department, which was disgraced in 2011, be able to stop this?

Conservative trouncing of the liberal incumbents in Iceland in early election returns, pointing to a landslide repudiation of the ruling party and an end to plans to join the EU. [142]

An apologetic for Genesis 1-11, based on the best scientific models available. [143]

God's intelligent design is on display in the sky this weekend: "Saturn at its biggest and brightest Saturday." Many people cannot believe it when they see Saturn's rings for the first time through a telescope. [144]

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky showed how abysmally stupid politicians often are. Here's the latest evidence on Barack Hussein Obama's true identity, the significance of which McConnell totally missed. [145]

Why is there only one God? [146]

"Comprehensive immigration reform" is a tool of fundamental change of America – a thing Barack Obama wants. [147]

Earth's core is proven to be as hot as the Sun, contradicting atheistic theories. [148] Biblical scientific foreknowledge predicted this, as Earth and heat were created prior to the Sun.

A new Black Robed Regiment forms in New Jersey, as pastors re-create a previously un-sung influence in the American Revolution. [149]

Lamestream media proven wrong again: "Economic growth, at 2.5%, falls below expectations." [150]

One more chapter to go before the newly revised Question evolution! campaign book for middle school students is sent to a second group of student reviewers. [151]

"In Turkey, a Muslim Lady fights for the Rights of Israel" (the Scientific Creationist Pro-Jewish movement and Al Qaeda in Collision) by Bishop Bert: [152]

Quickly, the Obama Administration and the liberal media try to change the subject from the Boston Marathon bombing to what Syria is allegedly doing halfway around the world. [153] Isn't Boston more important to America than Damascus??

"Yeah, I wanted to kill the people in the building and then smear a Chicken-fil-A sandwich on their face." It's the liberal Southern Poverty Law Center that's been credited by a liberal terrorist for providing the information for his attack on the Family Research Council. [154]

Education reform: a do-it-yourself guide. [155]

Liberals gotta love this one: Tamerlan Tsarnaev had trained himself to be an American-killing terrorist while getting welfare benefits at the same time. [156]

A Tea Party activist lays it on the line: Executive Orders are unconstitutional. [157]

Dem #6 announces his retirement from the U.S. Senate, rather than face reelection. [158] If liberal ideology is so great, then why are so many like Max Baucus quitting its political efforts?

A home schooling family from Germany will defend their rights to home school — in a United States court. The case of Romeike v. Holder comes before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today. [159]

The sometimes conservative Koch Brothers cause angst on the Left by considering buying liberal newspaper failures like the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. [160]

The Boston Marathon bombers were firm believers in liberalism ... meaning that the gun laws so championed by the left wing don't apply to them. [161]

Does that Saudi national know more about the Boston Marathon Bombing than he's telling? Why is the government spiriting him out of this country like a carrier of typhoid fever? Congress wants answers. Glenn Beck threatens to drop a bombshell today or tomorrow. [162] UPDATE: Glenn Beck drops the bombshell, and he's not the only one. Details: [163]

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev drove over his brother Tamerlan, which was possibly the real cause of his death. [164] Was Dzhokhar on drugs?

Evil does exist: alleged Young Mass Murderer Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tweeted after the bombing, "Ain't no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people." [165]

Pro-evolution UK government is producing many second-rate secondary school graduates. [166]

Also, a 2012 study found that more and more U.S. liberal arts colleges are reforming themselves or are closing. See: Worst college majors

"The Binding of Isaac, the 'Akedah', and Jesus Christ" by Bishop Bert [167]

Two geneticists admit: life could never have become as complex as it is today, even in a long age of the earth. So they say life began before the earth! Why don't they just accept creation? [168]

College enrollment shows signs of slowing which means less post high school evolutionary indoctrination. Also, the ever shrinking role of tenured evolutionist professors and evolutionary biologists.[169] See also: Professor values

Secular humanist Paul Kurtz vs. the Christian Francis Schaeffer - Schaeffer wins hands down in the legacy department.[170]

Atheist Paul Kurtz's book The Turbulent Universe - a zero Amazon rating. The book Atheism for Dummies has a 4.5 Amazon star rating.[171] Are atheists smarter?

Also, another reason the so-called expansion of atheism is merely bluster and a mirage. See: Global atheism

More and more American public officials want creationism and/or anti-evolution material in schools. 7 reasons why 2014 will see an increase in anti-evolution legislation.[172]

Attended class and partied on Wednesday: the 19-year-old Boston bombing suspect fit right in on the atheistic, public college campus. [173]

The Obama Administration was informed at least two years ago about the danger posed by Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the leader of the Boston Marathon bombing, and supposedly had him under surveillance. "They knew what my son was doing," says his mother. [174]

Ancient astronomers kept a 360 day calendar for thousands of years. Why? Could it be because the earth did have a 360 day year once? Find out how. [175]

The atheist and evolutionist PZ Myers throws out Darwin. [176]

The intelligentsia know that an atheist wiki is vastly inferior to Creation.com.[177]

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the United Kingdom's long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings (IDR) to 'AA+' from 'AAA'.[178] How long will the British keep Charles Darwin on their currency?

Heavy metal conservative Bradlee Dean warns: governments often use terrorism to their own advantage. [179]

Violent video games likely played a key role in the development of the Boston Young Mass Murderers, but liberal censorship is working overtime to avoid mentioning it.
Meanwhile, video game companies announce profit increases. [180]

Boston Marathon Bombing: 1 suspect dead, another on the run, and yet another casualty. And the Obama administration has some explaining to do. [181]

The sister of the two young Boston bombing suspects stated that she has "no idea what's gotten into them." [182] Perhaps it was submersion into violent video games by the young men?

Leading website analyzer thinks atheist wiki editors produce low quality work.[183] It's time to renew your library cards atheists!

How many Americans are shot and killed each year by government agents?

The same 1994 law that temporarily banned the sale of assault weapons also required the federal government to compile data on police shootings nationwide. However, neither the Justice Department nor most local police departments have bothered to tally such occurrences. Jim Bovard, Washington Times

RINOs rule in New Jersey, and now the Tea Party will make New Jersey their test case. [184]

Impressive animated Christian children's tracts. Are animated dinosaur biblical creation tracts next?[185]

More shocking, unusual violence in Boston: an MIT campus police officer "was shot multiple times" and killed, and the murderer escaped. [186] We pray for the victim.
Yet Massachusetts has strict gun control and very harsh penalties for violations.
UPDATE: The two suspects in the Boston Marathon Bombings did that deed. One is dead; the other is still at large.

The agenda is more important to liberals than saving lives. It's why a monster named Gosnell was allowed to operate an abortion factory where born babies were murdered, and why the media chose to ignore it. [187]

How to reform education in this country: think outside the box. Meaning: don't let the government box you in to their schools. [188]

"US Senate Rejects Expanding Gun Background Checks." Defeated, sore loser Obama responds with liberal style by calling his opponents liars. [189] Hint: he is the liar, not they. [190]

Liberal media headline: "Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American" [191] If the bomber turns out to be part of some international terrorist conspiracy, then the USA might respond appropriately, and the article would rather blame white Americans. Separately: are they going to arrest someone or aren't they? [192]

America, will you follow the Nazi route? Remembering Martin Niemöller, John Adams, and Noah Webster as the attack on American values continues. [193]

British socialism drops to a new low: "Protesters along the funeral route turned their backs on Baroness Thatcher's coffin as it passed on its way to St Paul's Cathedral." [194]

LIBERAL DENIAL: an eyewitness reportedly tackled the suspect and turned him over to the police, but officials and the media now pretend they have no idea who committed the heinous crime at the Boston Marathon. [195] The public may never be told the truth, and certainly not soon, in order to avoid political embarrassment.

Was God's finished creation perfect? What did Augustine say about man's ability not to sin before the fall of man?[196]

Barack Obama's plan to destroy America was hatched at Columbia University. [197]

Evil is real, and tragic: 3 were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, and more than 130 hurt, many severely, in the Boston Marathon bombing. [198] Investigators are searching for a foreign-accented suspect seen in the vicinity of the crime.

May God help the victims. [199]

Once again, the leftists infesting the liberal media couldn't wait for the victims to be taken to hospitals before they blame the Boston bombing on the "right wing." [200][201]

Gold bubble bursts - After rising exponentially for a dozen years from $200 to nearly $1,800, the price for a troy ounce of gold dropped to $1,400 this month. [202] [203] [204]

The discovery of fossilized cells in north-west Scotland has forced a dramatic rewrite of the supposed evolutionary history of life on Earth.[205]

All those evolutionists who claimed to know how old life is on earth, must now admit they were very wrong. There are at least 101 reasons why the earth is young.[206]

The third Noah's Ark replica is being built by Hispanics near Miami, who hope the Pope will attend the inauguration. [207] Evidently the falsehoods of atheism continue to be rejected by many.

The National Secular Society says that aggressive French religious lobbies are in a sustained attack on French secularism.[208]

Message to the captain of the SS Secularism: Your ship is taking on more and more water and the waves are going to be bigger and more frequent.[209]

Are liberals going to go after marijuana smoke with the same gusto they have with tobacco smoke? [210]

Liberal teacher in a public school tells fourth-graders to give up Constitutional rights. [211]

Who wants Sheriff Joe dead? [212]

Statutory rape: the missing legal problem in abortion that now has the attention of a bunch of lawyers. [213]

"A Turkish delight: they think so in Israel too!" by Bishop Bert [214]

Russia calls American politicians "Russophobic", in apparent mockery of how liberals push their homosexual agenda on "homophobic" Russia. [215] Try "Biblophobic", a Best New Conservative Word.

Nanny State update: a busybody calls 911 to report a jogger who was running backwards, and the cops in Democrat Miami give him a ticket ... even though he's jogged backwards safely for six years. [216]

A call to impeach Attorney General Eric Holder, for multiple high crimes and misdemeanors in office. [217]

Congressman Chris Smith on liberal censorship: "Why the censorship" of the Philadelphia abortionist's "Jeffrey Dahmer-like murder trial?" [218]

Looking for things to see and do? See a beautiful landscape which Questions Evolution! Also, public library science books with Question evolution! campaign tracts placed inside them.[219]

A Tea Party activist sends an open letter to Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania: Your bill looks good, but could be better. He suggests seven specific "fixes." [220]

The liberal media continue their attempt to drive conservative athlete Tim Tebow out of New York City, even for a voluntary off-season practice. "Get rid of Tim Tebow," shouts the headline. [221] Many liberals would rather lose than win with a conservative leader.

Message to PZ Myers and friends: Re-positioning the decades long "atheist nerd brand" is going to be close to impossible. Also, "golden age of internet atheism" is coming to an end. [222]

PZ Myers says the atheist community is on the "cusp of a crisis". PZ Myers admits atheists are largely a bunch of: geeks, "scattered society of Internet nerds" and a "largely irrelevant subset of the population".[223]

ABC, CBS, NBC ‘Deliberately Censoring’ Bad News on Obamacare.[224]

Without Darwin, some of the atrocities connected with evolution might not have been. But people of faith might have grown complacent, too. [225]

Liberal double standard: when Republicans tape-record Democrats (e.g., Watergate), there is media outrage, but not when Democrats tape-record Republicans, despite a Dem statement that a liberal group probably taped a GOP meeting. [226]

News from the land of atheism: "Margaret Thatcher death celebrations" sweep the faithless Great Britain. [227]

Digital Journal posts an excellent summary of the Dr. William Lane Craig vs. atheist philosopher Alex Rosenburg debate. [228]

Unfortunately for Professor Rosenburg, once he steps outside his liberal academia cocoon, he is totally clueless when confronted with reality.

Liberal double standard: Wednesday was a warm day in D.C., and Democrats say that is evidence of global warming! [229] So why don't they say the opposite when it is a cold day?

An article on the possible relationship between school shootings and violent video games was censored by the Huffington Post. [230]

The most famous "heavy metal conservative activist" warns: the Homosexual Agenda is real, and is destructive. He offers some explicit examples. [231]

Liberal logic: Hugo Chavez's successor promises, if elected, to hold a special investigation into whether Chavez was "inoculated with cancer cells," and hints that he suspects the "American Empire" was responsible. [232] The liberal media played into this accusation by promoting the fake claims and photo of Chavez's purported good health.

Vive la French Creationnisme! Long live French creationism! French creationists are coming aboard the Question Evolution! Campaign.[233]

"Texas student stabs at least 14 at Lone Star College." [234] Because of gun control, students were unarmed and unable to stop the attack sooner.

A Question evolution! campaign blog is rapidly approaching 400,000 page views. Christian blogosphere will soon be turbocharged via blog marketing expertise.[235]

Biola University posts the Christian apologist William Lane Craig vs. atheist philosopher Alex Rosenburg debate. [236]

Why did the atheist Alex Rosenburg appear to drink so much water in the debate relative to Dr. Craig? Dry mouth nervousness?

Margaret Thatcher, RIP. [237]

Dr. William Lane Craig beats the atheist philosopher Alex Rosenburg in a landslide debate victory.[238]

Why does Duke University still employ this atheist, nutjob professor? See: Professor values

An analysis of Walt Brown’s Flood model (hydroplate model of Noah's Flood). [239]

States are moving in very different directions politically on abortion and other fundamental issues. [240] But people are migrating to the conservative states and away from the liberal ones.

How the hockey stick crumbled. Like it or not, liberals, global warming is a proven farce: [241]

More bad news for liberal public schools: "Virtual learning bills gain momentum in Florida Legislature." [242]

Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore rejects liberal advice for women not to raise their own children: "Unfortunately, I was raised in this, like, generation of, like, 'Women can have it all,' and I don't think you can. I think some things fall off the table, the good news is, what does stay on the table becomes much more important" [raising children]. [243] Will Drew become a homeschooler?

Barack Hussein Obama tosses some pork to Florida with plans to capture an asteroid and bring it to orbit around the Moon. If the de facto President wants to worry about a big natural disaster, let him look closer to home. Details: [244]

"Le flop!" Overrated Sports Star David Beckham is "given 3/10 rating" by a candid French press, observing that the Brit "left fellow holding midfielder ... 'to fight for both of them.'" [245]

Massive cable ratings for "The Bible" miniseries on the History channel - much higher than CNN and the Fox News Channel. [246] So why does the lamestream media ignore the Good Book so much?

Can liberty win under seemingly long odds? It did before. A modern activists asks Americans to remember their history, and compare their strength now to their strength during the American Revolution. [247]

A Tea Party activist asks: are politicians really as stupid as they seem concerning the Second Amendment? Or do they have an agenda to deprive us of our rights under it? [248]

Jobs report is below expectations by more than 100,000, and "the participation rate in the workforce is the lowest since May 1979." [249] This is what the liberals told us would be an economic recovery???

How creation was reborn: the three lines of counterattack. [250]

When the American Civil Liberties Union says a new law by a Democrat threatens privacy, the Democrats know they have problems. The ACLU raises strong concerns about the latest gun control law in the Senate. [251]

Overrated Sports Star -- and longtime favorite of the liberal media -- Lance Armstrong is forced out of a swimming meet because of his past conduct. [252]

Self-centered liberals cannot let go of what they think is power: "Obama presses donors to help return Pelosi to speakership." [253]

How the long age view of the age of the earth gained credence. Offers clues to how to reverse that misconception. [254]

Liberal double standard: "Conservatives Shouldn't Own Newspapers?" [255]

The Department of Defense victimizes our fallen heroes, in the name of political correctness. [256]

Oh dear, it appears about 5-7% of American evolutionists believe that "shape-shifting alien reptilian people control our world by taking on human form".[257]

A 15 year-old girl leaves an anti-gun legislature speechless: [258]

"Guns are not the problem; people are." Gun control will not remove guns from society but rather make it harder for people to protect their lives.

What we get as as teachers when liberals control the education: A Weather Underground radical who once served two decades for an armed robbery that killed two cops and a guard is now a professor at Columbia University. [259]

The global warming hoax continued. In fact, it's entirely groundless: [260]

Previous Conservapedia Breaking News

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Obama: Assault weapons ban 'deserves a vote' in full Senate, House

President Obama on Thursday applauded the Senate Judiciary Committee's approval of a renewed assault weapons ban and called for a vote on the proposal in the full Senate and House, hours after Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he wasn't sure if he would include the ban in his gun control package.

"The full Senate and the House need to vote on this bill, as well as the measures advanced in the past week that would impose serious penalties on anyone who buys a gun as part of a scheme to arm criminals, improve school safety, and help keep guns out of the hands of criminals, people with a severe mental illness, and others who shouldn’t have them," Obama said in a statement released by the White House. "Each of these proposals deserves a vote."

Reid, who has opposed a renewed assault weapons ban in the past, said Thursday he has not yet decided whether the package he brings to the floor for a vote will include restrictions that would ban the sale and manufacture of 150 semi-automatic weapons with military-style features.

"I'm going to talk to [Sen. Patrick] Leahy [(D-Vt.)] about that," he told reporters after a leadership press conference. "I'm not going to worry about it here. Everybody will have their chance."

Some Democrats have said that omitting the assault weapons ban, which is strongly opposed by Republicans and some Democratic members, would improve the chances of other gun controls -- including expanded background checks and new laws governing the trafficking of firearms -- being passed.

But in his statement Thursday, Obama again left little doubt that he wanted a vote on the assault weapons ban.

"These weapons of war, when combined with high-capacity magazines, have one purpose: to inflict maximum damage as quickly as possible. They are designed for the battlefield, and they have no place on our streets, in our schools, or threatening our law enforcement officers," Obama said.

The ban, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), passed the Judiciary Committee in a 10-8 party-line vote.

- Jonathan Easley and Alexander Bolton contributed.

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The Complexities of Providing Health Insurance

Private health insurance increasingly entails moral and ethical issues of consequence to both employers and workers. Recent federal health care legislation has exacerbated the situation by implicitly asserting the supremacy of government’s moral judgments over those of employers and workers who finance private health plans. The Heritage Foundation’s Edmund F. Haislmaier, Senior Research Fellow in Health Policy Studies, examined these issues in a presentation to Catholic bishops attending the National Catholic Bioethics Center’s Twenty-Fourth Workshop for Bishops—“Bioethics Through the Eyes of Faith: Serving Christ in the Sick and Vulnerable”—in Dallas, Texas. He concluded that respect for freedom of conscience in addressing the moral dimensions of medical care should lead to a preference for health policy solutions built around the primacy of patients.

Discussions of the ethics of health care financing typically focus on issues of equity and social justice. Yet such discussions are more often about means than ends. Contrary to the impression given by occasionally heated political rhetoric, there, in fact, exists a broad consensus across the political spectrum that modern societies have an obligation to ensure that all of their members have access to needed medical care.

Of course, there are still disagreements over what should be considered necessary or appropriate care, or where to draw the line between personal and collective financial responsibilities, but those are mainly disputes at the margins.

Somewhat more consequential are the debates over how the system should be structured. They involve not only disagreements over the proper roles of the government and the private sector, but also practical considerations with respect to the efficacy of different approaches for organizing the financing and delivery of medical care.

The same can also be found in other social policy areas, such as education. For instance, the existence of broad societal support for the proposition that all children should be educated to a minimum level, does not, in and of itself, resolve questions over how best to achieve that end, the appropriate level of resources to devote to the effort, how the system should be structured, or the proper roles of the various participants.

Rather, in health care financing, the truly contentious issues today are those that center on the morality of specific therapies or actions. Indeed, recent scientific advances are spawning new ethical issues in medicine—and by extension, in health care financing as well. To the issues that have long been present, such as abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide, must now be added others, such as artificial contraception, assisted reproduction, sex-change treatments, genetic therapies, therapeutic cloning, and potential therapies derived from embryonic stem cells.

While these issues typically attract attention in the context of debates over the use of public funds, such as the issue of paying for abortion in public programs, they also exist, though less visibly, in private health care financing. That is particularly the case in the United States, where half of all medical care is still privately financed, mainly through employer-provided health insurance.

Private, employer-sponsored health insurance has been the dominant form of medical coverage in the United States for over half a century. Even though the share of the population covered by employer health plans has declined from its peak in the 1970s, 58.4 percent of the non-elderly U.S. population is still covered by employment-based health insurance.[1] This arrangement is the product of social policies since the 1940s that have favored it, mainly by treating employer-provided health benefits as tax-free income to workers. In the intervening years, government also imposed regulations on these arrangements, but until now those regulations were almost exclusively limited to addressing the contractual and financial aspects of private coverage.

However, this coverage arrangement presents its own set of ethical considerations, and while the latest federal health care legislation has pushed those issues to the forefront, they have long been present in the system in latent form.

Employer-sponsored health insurance is a form of compensation paid by an employer to its workers. As such, the ethics of how those funds are spent is of consequence to both the employer and the workers. Moral obligations attach not only to the employer’s decisions with respect to selecting or designing the plan, but also to the employee’s participation in the plan, since such plans are collective arrangements funded with monies that would otherwise be part of the worker’s cash wages.

Yet, most workers probably do not know if their employer’s health plan uses their money to pay for items or services that they consider immoral. They might be surprised to learn, for example, that a 2003 health care coverage survey found that 46 percent of workers with employer-sponsored health insurance were covered by plans that paid for abortion services.[2] Indeed, there have been instances in which even conscientious employers, including some Catholic institutions, discovered that they had been, unintentionally, providing their workers with health plans that include coverage for morally objectionable items or procedures.

These situations occur because changing social norms and developments in medical science have steadily altered what is considered “standard” or “typical” in employer health plan coverage. Unless an employer is diligent in excluding morally objectionable services from its health plan coverage, one or more of those services are increasingly likely to be in the plan by default.

To this equation has now been added another dimension by the most recent federal health care legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010.[3] While that legislation does expand existing public programs somewhat, its more consequential feature is that it takes the novel approach of attempting to achieve social policy objectives by compelling individuals to engage in government-specified transactions with other private parties. In effect, rather than increasing taxation to the level necessary to achieve its objectives through public programs, Congress instead decided to commandeer existing private resources to achieve those objectives through closely regulated private arrangements.

That this approach is novel in terms of secular law can be seen from the challenges to the constitutionality of the law’s requirement that individuals purchase health insurance. However, it is also novel with respect to the ethics of health care financing, in that it shifts the locus of authority over private medical treatment and private financing decisions, including those that entail ethical or moral considerations, from employers and individuals to government.

The legislation expands federal government regulation of private health care coverage in a number of significant ways, three of which embody this significant shift in authority:

First, it grants the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sweeping new powers to impose a wide range of benefit requirements on policies sold by health insurers and, in some cases, on employer-sponsored health plans as well.

Second, for the first time, it requires employers with 50 or more workers to provide their employees with health insurance coverage that the federal government deems to be adequate and affordable, or pay annual fines for failing to comply.

Third, and also for the first time, it requires individuals to obtain the minimum health insurance coverage specified by the government, or pay annual fines for failing to comply.

Underlying these measures is a corresponding shift in the rationale for government regulation that has profound implications for the ethics of private health care financing.

In October 2010, a major medical journal published a paper by a leading supporter of the legislation arguing for the constitutionality of its requirement on individuals to obtain health insurance. Setting aside the merits of the legal reasoning, it is the author’s exposition of the law’s underlying philosophical rationale that is most clarifying for our purposes. The principal justification offered for the requirement on individuals to obtain health insurance is that it is part of “a broader regulatory scheme” embodied in the new law:

First, and perhaps most fundamentally, in a remarkable shift whose precedent lies in the watershed Civil Rights Act of 1964, the [PPACA] transforms health insurance into a public accommodation.… This basic reconceptualization of health insurance as a good whose availability is a matter of national public interest essentially frames health insurance the way the Civil Rights Act framed other business interests.[4]

It is under this “public accommodation” rationale that the government now asserts the power to: (1) require employers to fund and manage health plans for their workers; (2) compel individuals to purchase health coverage; and (3) determine the scope and benefits of the coverage that must be provided and purchased. Because some of those decisions will involve ethical or moral considerations, the government is also implicitly asserting the supremacy of its own moral judgments over those of the employers and workers whose resources pay for the medical care in question.

The first conflict to arise out of the government’s exercise of these new powers centers on the requirement that employers and individuals pay for and facilitate contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. However, it is not hard to envision more such conflicts arising in the future, should this new arrogation of power by the government be permitted to stand. That is because the legislation’s two separate benefit-setting provisions are drafted as broad grants of discretionary authority to the executive branch.

First, Congress empowered HHS to define and “periodically update,” a package of “essential health benefits” within at least 10 broad categories.[5] Starting in 2014, insurers will be required to include the essential health benefits in all individual and small-group policies.[6]

Second, the law requires both insurers and employers, including those that “self-insure,” to cover specified “preventive services” with no enrollee cost-sharing.[7] The requirement that employers and insurers provide coverage for contraception (including abortion-inducing drugs) and sterilization, is a subset of this second set of benefit mandates.

With these provisions now in federal law, there will likely be interest group pressure to expand the list of mandated benefits, and some of those proposed additions are likely to also be morally objectionable.[8] Indeed, that has been the experience with benefit mandates imposed by state governments on insurers, though employers can avoid state government mandates by not purchasing coverage from an insurance company and instead designing and funding their own “self-insured” plans. However, that solution will not work for the subset of new federal benefit mandates that are imposed not only on insurers but also directly on employers.

Thus, both employers and individuals attempting to act in accordance with Catholic moral teaching are placed in an unsatisfactory position.

One option for a Catholic or other conscientious employer, would be to simply discontinue the employee health plan and convert plan contributions back into cash wages paid to the workers. However, under the new law, if the employer has 50 or more workers, it would then be fined $2,000 each year, per worker, for not providing the required coverage. Furthermore, its workers would also be fined if they did not, then, obtain the required coverage on their own. Yet, all of the alternative plans available to them in either the individual insurance market, or through the employer of another worker in the family, would be required to include the morally objectionable items or services. Thus, this option is not a satisfactory solution for either the employer or the employees.

Another option would be for employers who are conscientious objectors to redesign their employee health benefit plans in ways that:

exclude coverage of morally objectionable items and services, and thus do not violate their consciences; avoid exposing their organizations to the ruinous fines imposed on non-compliant plans, yet; and still enable them to offer their workers employer-sponsored health benefits on a pre-tax basis.

I have been working with others who also have expertise in this area to develop a template for such benefit plan redesigns that Catholic and other objecting employers could use. However, under this approach, the employer would still be fined the same as if he provided no coverage, and his employees would also be fined if they did not otherwise obtain the required coverage. Thus, while creatively redesigning employer plans could significantly reduce the risks and costs associated with non-compliance—relieving some of the pressure on employers as they await the eventual disposition of their legal challenges—this option also does not resolve the underlying conflict.

Of course, pursuing court challenges to the infringement on rights of conscience posed by morally objectionable government benefit mandates is important, but it, too, will not produce a definitive resolution. Even if the plaintiffs challenging the imposition of the contraceptive coverage mandate eventually prevail in court, the government would still retain the power to later impose one or more other morally objectionable coverage requirements. Each future infringement would have to be litigated all over again.[9]

A more definitive solution would be to add a “conscience exemption” to the law.[10] Yet, to be truly satisfactory, a conscience exemption would need to meet at least the following four tests:

It would need to be explicit and unambiguous. It would need to broadly protect conscience rights with respect to decisions not only involving existing items, services, and treatments, but future ones as well. It would need to be available, on equal terms and as a matter of right, to any individual or entity, and could not be otherwise conditional or dependent on government deciding the validity of conscience claims. It would need to be functionally meaningful by also permitting health insurers to offer plans that exclude from coverage specific items or services if their customers have moral objections to funding or facilitating those items or services.

Yet, the very need for such an amendment indicates that the basic structure of the underlying law is seriously flawed. A law crafted such that it can be applied justly only if significant exceptions are permitted, is inherently defective in either its basic premise or its basic design, or both. In such circumstances, it is best for lawmakers to simply repeal the defective law. Assuming that the original objectives are legitimate, lawmakers may then adopt other, less problematic, means to achieving the same ends.

It is possible to ensure that all members of society have access to needed medical care, accompanied by just and equitable financing arrangements, without resorting to laws that infringe on freedom of religion and conscience.

While designing such an alternative approach involves practical considerations that are outside the scope of the Church’s moral and teaching authority, it is possible, and indeed helpful, for the Church to offer additional guidance derived from other principles beyond those of equity and social justice.

To return to the earlier analogy, if there are multiple ways to structure a system of universal primary education, then, in order to assess the relative merits of those competing approaches, one must look for guidance to some other principle beyond that of social justice. In the case of education, that principle should be the Church’s teaching that parents are the ones who have the primary responsibility and authority in educating their children. Judged in light of that principle, an educational system that operates with more deference to the rights and authority of parents would be preferable to one that gives less deference.

In the same fashion, the Church’s teaching on the inherent dignity and worth of every human life should be the guiding principle for assessing the relative merits of differing approaches to constructing a comprehensive and equitable system for financing and delivering medical care.

The system will function best and most effectively if it is structured such that patients and consumers—not governments or employers—are empowered to be the ultimate decision-makers. It is possible to construct a comprehensive, just, and equitable health care system without subordinating the needs and authority of patients to those of government, employers, insurers, or medical providers. My colleagues and I have spent years working on the details of how that can, in fact, be accomplished.[11]

We also argued several years ago that greater patient and consumer control over health care financing was also the best way to ultimately, and more satisfactorily, address the growing number of issues in biomedical ethics.[12]

While the Church rightly does not pronounce on prudential matters that do not have direct moral implications, it does point to the relevant, basic principles that should guide our assessments of the total effects of social structures and public policies.

To adapt a formulation sometimes used in other contexts, I submit that, just as the totality of Catholic teaching should lead us in education policy to a preferential option for solutions built around the primacy of parents, so, too, it should lead us in health care policy to a preferential option for solutions built around the primacy of patients. That primacy is not just a primacy of their needs, or even a primacy of their authority. It is also a primacy of their consciences.

—Edmund F. Haislmaier is Senior Research Fellow in the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. This lecture will also be published in a forthcoming issue of The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly (www.ncbcenter.org).

[1] Paul Fronstin, “Sources of Health Insurance and Characteristics of the Uninsured: Analysis of the March 2012 Current Population Survey,” Employee Benefit Research Institute, Issue Brief No. 376, September, 2012, http://www.ebri.org/pdf/briefspdf/EBRI_IB_09-2012_No376_Sources1.pdf (accessed February 15, 2013).

[2] Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust, “Employer Health Benefits: 2003 Annual Survey,” p. 109, Exhibit 8.2, www.kff.org/insurance/upload/Kaiser-Family-Foundation-2003-Employer-Health-Benefits-Survey-Full-Report.pdf (accessed February 15, 2013).

[3] The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA), Public Law 111-148.

[4] Sara Rosenbaum, “A ‘Broader Regulatory Scheme’—The Constitutionality of Health Care Reform,” The New England Journal of Medicine, October 27, 2010, http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1010850 (accessed February 15, 2013).

[5] PPACA, Public Law 111-148, § 1302. The statue stipulates that the essential health benefits, “shall include at least the following general categories and the items and services covered within the categories: ambulatory patient services; emergency services; hospitalization; maternity and newborn care; mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management, and; pediatric services, including oral and vision care.”

[6] New § 2707 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S. Code § 300gg-6), as added by PL 111–148 § 1201(4).

[7] New § 2713 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S. Code § 300gg-13) as added by PL 111–148 § 1001(5).

[8] See, for example, Kellan Baker and Andrew Cray, “Ensuring Benefits Parity and Gender Identity Nondiscrimination in Essential Health Benefits,” Center for American Progress, November 15, 2012, http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/BakerHealthBenefits-2.pdf (accessed February 15, 2013).

[9] For a discussion of the limits of judicial remedies in this case, and the more general problems with creating exemptions to unjust laws, particularly when such exemptions are the product of court decisions rather than legislative amendments, see Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “The Religious Liberty Case Against Religious Liberty Litigation: Non-Universal Exemptions and Judicial Overreach,” The Witherspoon Institute, October 11, 2012, http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/10/6562/ (accessed February 15, 2013), and Muñoz, “The Religious Liberty Case Against Religious Liberty Litigation: Renewed Focus on Reasonable, Not Sectarian, Arguments,” The Witherspoon Institute, October 12, 2013, http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/10/6565/ (accessed February 15, 2013).

[10] See, for example, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act of 2011, H.R. 1179 and S. 1467, 112th Congress, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr1179ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr1179ih.pdf (accessed February 15, 2013).

[11] For further elaboration of the patient- and consumer-oriented approach to systematic health reform, see Robert E. Moffit, “Expanding Choice through Defined Contributions: Overcoming a Non-Participatory Health Care Economy,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Fall 2012), pp. 558–573, and Edmund F. Haislmaier, “Health Care Reform: Design Principles for a Patient-Centered, Consumer-Based Market,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2128, April 23, 2008, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2008/04/health-care-reform-design-principles-for-a-patient-centered-consumer-based-market.

[12] Robert E. Moffit, Jennifer A. Marshall, and Grace V. Smith, “Patients’ Freedom of Conscience: The Case for Values-Driven Health Plans,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1933, May 12, 2006, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/05/patients-freedom-of-conscience-the-case-for-values-driven-health-plans.

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Maryland Senate Committee Kills Transgender Nondiscrimination Protections

Though the success of marriage equality in Maryland was an important achievement, the state still lacks nondiscrimination protections for its transgender community, and it seems that won’t be changing anytime soon. Today the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee voted 6-5 to kill the Fairness for All Marylanders Act, which would have prohibited discrimination based on gender identity in housing, employment, and public accommodations.

One of the Democrats who voted against the protections was Sen. Norman Stone, who in 1967 voted to maintain the state’s ban on interracial marriage and who opposed same-sex marriage in 2012. Another was Sen. James Brochin, who was actually convinced to vote for marriage equality because of how “appalling” opponents’ testimony was. Apparently when the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg testified that trans people are “suffering” from a “delusion” and require therapy instead of protections, it just wasn’t appalling enough.

Only 16 states protect trans people from discrimination, and Maryland is apparently not becoming the 17th anytime soon.

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How Pope Francis Can Impact Economic Policy And Help The Poor

Argentina’s Jose Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, became the new head of the Catholic Church yesterday, assuming the papacy that was vacated by Pope Benedict XVI at the end of February. As a cardinal in Argentina, Bergoglio eschewed excess, living in poverty and often visiting the nation’s slums and other impoverished areas. Francis took his name from St. Francis of Assisi, the most famous Catholic advocate for the poor, and as pope, he will have the chance to continue the Church’s legacy of fighting growing rates of income inequality and defending the poor.

Though Bergoglio took strides to distance himself from liberation theology, which advocates for the reform of capitalist economics in a way that benefits the disadvantaged, while serving in Argentina, he has in the past railed against economic inequality and the lack of focus given to the poor by the world’s economic elites. He has called “extreme poverty and and unjust economic structures that create great inequities” a violation of basic human rights, and he has chastised the wealthy for not “taking into account the poor.” In 2007, he went even farther, decrying the economic inequality that exists around the world:

“We live, apparently, in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least. The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.”

Recent popes have made similar declarations. In 2011, with streets around the world filled with protests of economic inequality and austerity that was inflicting even more pain on the poor, Benedict called for more economic equality and sweeping reforms of the global financial system in a way that would lead to the “achievement of a universal common good.” Benedict also called for greater wealth distribution to eliminate world hunger and for the greater protection of labor unions to help workers around the world.

Catholic social teaching, in fact, is rich with doctrine about the importance of defending and helping the poor. Still, the Catholic Church has been criticized for not taking sufficient action on those issues. Benedict, after all, formally censured the largest group of American nuns, who focus primarily on advocating for the poor through health care reform and poverty programs, because he said they were not focusing enough on social issues like abortion and gay marriage.

Francis has a chance to change that, whether by re-upping his anti-austerity messages in Europe, where spending cuts have driven up unemployment and decimated poverty programs, by leading opposition to increased income inequality in the United States, where cuts to poverty programs have helped exacerbate the effects of the recession, or by pushing for reforms to economic and health programs to benefit the poorest citizens of Central and South America, Africa, and Asia.

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Obamacare: An Alarming Checkup

OK, Obamacare. Up on the table. It’s time for your annual physical.

Three years old, eh? Well, with any luck, you’ll leave here with a clean bill of uh-oh. I can see one problem already. Have you seen these tax hikes?

Let’s see — five, 10, 15, 18 tax hikes in all. That hardly seems wise, considering the fragile health of the economy, but there they are.

There’s the tax on individuals who don’t purchase health insurance. That will cost $55 billion over the next decade. I also see a 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health plans costing more than $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. It’ll be $111 billion for that between 2018 and 2022. Several smaller ones, such as limiting the amount people can set aside in their flexible spending accounts: $4.5 billion there from 2011 to 2022.

It all adds up, Obamacare. It’s not healthy.

Hate to tell you this, but it gets worse. See this? That’s the number of people who are going to lose their current health insurance because of you. Not thousands, but 7 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This isn’t guesswork; it’s already happening.

Take Universal Orlando, which recentlyannounced that it won’t continue to cover its part-time workers. Why? Not because they’re coldhearted, but because they can’t afford it. Your prohibition of annual benefit limits beginning next year is making Universal’s health plans too expensive. The word is, this will affect about 500 Universal employees.

Or consider the American Veterinary Medical Association in Illinois. “[M]edical coverage will end for some 17,500 association members and thousands of their dependents at year’s end,” the group says in a news release. There are many more to come, from other employers. Ouch.

Wait. Obamacare, didn’t you say that nobody who liked his current plan would lose it? Yes. You promised it, in fact — repeatedly. I’d better note that in your chart.

You may be getting uncomfortable, but we’re not done yet. Over here, there’s another serious problem: You’re hurting hiring — and right at a time when the economy could use all the help it can get to reduce unemployment.

You don’t believe it? Look at the “Beige Book,” a report that the Federal Reserve publishes eight times a year detailing the economic activity in the Fed’s 12 regions. According to its most recent report: “Employers in several districts cited the unknown effects of the Affordable Care Act as reasons for planned layoffs and reluctance to hire more staff.”

“Affordable Care Act.” That’s you.

There’s more. It’s a good thing you’re sitting down. It turns out you’re making it more difficult to access Medicare services.

You can be as skeptical as you want, but this is right from the Congressional Budget Office and Medicare’s own trustees. They’ve shown what you don’t want to admit: You’re raiding Medicare to pay for other new programs.

Payment rates for Medicare Advantage: down $156 billion over the next decade. Home health services: down $66 billion. Hospice services: down $17 billion. The biggest one is hospital services, which you cut by $260 billion. What’s that? No, the cuts do not target medical institutions or organizations suspected of waste, fraud or abuse. Nice try.

Finally, I see that insurance premiums are going to skyrocket under you. It’s those coverage mandates you put in place; they’re the culprit. According to a congressional report by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, some premiums are set to rise in every state. Yes, every state, and not by small amounts. In many states, they’re primed to go up by more than 50 percent; in others, by more than 100 percent. It’s all as a result of changes you’ve introduced.

This despite your claim that your law would “cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.” That sure isn’t working out, is it?

You can pay the receptionist on your way out. No, I’m afraid we don’t accept that insurance plan anymore.

-Ed Feulner is president of the Heritage Foundation (heritage.org).

First appeared in The Washington Times.

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President and Senate must overcome GOP obstructionism on NLRB

By John Logan, professor and director of Labor and Employment Studies, San Francisco State University - 03/14/13 03:35 PM ET

This week may prove critical to the future of the National Labor Relations Board and the protection of workers’ fundamental rights. On Tuesday the NLRB announced that it would ask the Supreme Court to review the D.C. Circuit Court’s January 2013 Noel Canning decision, which ruled unconstitutional President Obama’s recess appointments to the Board in January 2012. And on Wednesday, the president met with Senate Democrats to discuss how to tackle ongoing Republican obstruction of his nominees to federal agencies, the courts and others.

There’s no doubt that the Noel Canning decision – which would invalidate well over 300 recess appointments since President Reagan’s first term -- has been a disaster for the enforcement of workers’ rights. Dozens of employers have petitioned the D.C. Circuit for review of adverse decisions issued by the board since January 2012.  

The Chamber of Commerce and influential management law firms are encouraging employers to challenge the Board at any point in the proceedings, rather than wait for an adverse decision, and to question the authority of at least 10 NLRB regional directors appointed by the Board. Firms that have cited Noel Canning to take on the Board include Starbuck, McDonald’s, CNN America, LabCorp, and Domino’s Pizza. But employers of all sizes are challenging the Board and resisting its enforcement orders, and Republicans contend that the Noel Canning ruling invalidates all future decisions that the current Board might make.
Congressional Republicans have claimed that Board has “gone rogue” by adopting a radical pro-union agenda, but the actual evidence suggests otherwise. When President Obama first took office, the Chamber of Commerce commissioned a management law firm to report on what to expect from the new Board. The firm predicted that it would reverse at least twenty important decisions made by its predecessor; so far it has reversed only four of these twenty. And the Board’s actions in other areas have been similarly unremarkable. The high-profile Boeing dispute was settled long before it reached the national Board. And the Board’s two attempts at rule-making – requiring employers to post notices and streamlining union elections, both of which would be considered moderate proposals in any other developed democracy – are currently being held up in the courts.
Collegiality among Democratic and Republican Board members has broken down, but that is largely the result of the poisonous external political environment. For the past three years, Congressional Republicans have relentlessly attacked the Board, attempting to discredit, defang, defund, and destroy both it and the rights it enforces. Appointments to the NLRB were never intended to be a battleground, but the anti-union extremism of the GOP has turned them into one. Republicans filibustered the nomination of former AFL-CIO lawyer Craig Becker in 2010, and then vowed to block the future nominations and keep the Senate in session, via phony pro-forma sessions, to prevent recess appointments. This is why the President was forced to make the January 2012 recess appointments in the first place.
But the current conflict is not over the validity of the recess appointments; if it were, Republicans would be lining up to defend the warped reasoning of the DC Circuit’s sweeping decision. It is not even about the alleged “hyper-partisanship” of the current Board; in private, Republicans know that this Board is no more partisan than previous Republican Boards and that “policy oscillation” at the Board is routine when a new Administration assumes office. Rather, the real reason that Republicans and their allies want to destroy the NLRB is that they no longer believe in the fundamental workers’ rights that the agency is charged with enforcing.
Employer obstructionism in the wake of Noel Canning means that workers’ rights are being violated with no clear legal recourse. Employers are, among other things, attempting to block or overturn the results of union elections, and are refusing to reinstate and pay workers who have been fired illegally.
The NLRB is correct to request Supreme Court review of the D.C. Circuit’s outrageous decision. Noel Canning is a tour de force of textualism. The D.C. Circuit apparently cares nothing about a century of past practice or about the real world consequences of its decision, which is just as well because empowering the Senate to unilaterally eliminate the President’s recess appointment authority, even when it is unavailable to advise and consent, makes no practical sense.
But American workers cannot wait for over a year for basic justice. President Obama and Senate Democrats must overcome Republican obstructionism and act quickly to confirm the President’s nominees to the Board. If they fail to do so, the GOP may finally succeed in killing off not only the labor board but also the rights it enforces.

Logan is professor and director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University.

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