Why the Principle of Subsidiarity Negates Government-Dictated Health Care

 By Judie Brown

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog about health care reform and the Catholic Church’s principle of subsidiarity. In the essay, several Catholic bishops who had raised the same question in relationship to health care reform were quoted. Shortly thereafter, several readers wrote to say that they had never heard of the principle of subsidiarity before. They asked if I could explain it in a fundamental way that would be easy to understand.

I agreed to do this but moved on to other topics of concern and immediately forgot my promise. But then a brick bat struck me in the head (not literally) as I began to absorb the totality of what government-mandated health care reform would really do to the one fundamental structure that operates best in our society—the human family.

If the family itself is placed at the service of the government, chaos results.  And in the United States, we have the statistics to prove that. Just what has the welfare program done for families, for example?

Statistics readily available to anyone show that the welfare system has contributed directly to the breakdown of the family unit. As family research expert Patrick Fagan, Ph.D., has testified regarding what states and the federal government have done to assist families, we learn something remarkable about our tax dollars at work... Read the rest of Judie's blog post here.

Senate Backs Mikulski Amdt, Could Require All Insurance Plans to Cover Abortions

Senators approved an amendment to the government-run health care bill today that calls abortion "preventative care." They voted 61-39 in favor of the Mikulski amendment that could make it so every health care plan in the United States would have to cover abortion.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a pro-abortion Maryland Democrat, offered Amendment No. 2791 dealing with federally mandated coverage of "preventive care."

Though most of the discussion on the amendment centered on a mammogram coverage problem in the bill, it presents significant concerns for pro-life advocates.

Story here

Bishop still has ‘very serious concerns’ about health care legislation

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Despite the advance of the Stupak Amendment in proposed health care legislation, Bishop Robert Vasa of Bend, Oregon says there are still “very serious concerns” about the legislation. These include funding for abortion, pro-life conscience protections, assisted suicide, sex education and interference in the doctor-patient relationship.

Bishop Vasa wrote in his Dec. 3 column for the Catholic Sentinel that Catholic support for the Stupak Amendment, which barred federal funding for most abortions, should not be interpreted as complete support for the health care legislation.

He noted that the legislation funds abortion in cases of rape and incest and when the life of the mother is threatened, which he said is contrary to Church teaching about the “inviolability and dignity” of every unborn human being despite the circumstances of his or her origin.

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Be scared: Obamacare endangers our life spans

Much of the press coverage of the Democrats' health-care legislation, now fiercely embattled in Congress, focuses on the public option, the actual long-term costs and tax increases, and the amendment barring funding for abortions, but the cold heart of Obamacare is its overpowering of the doctor-patient relationship – eventually resulting in the premature ending of many Americans' lives for being too costly.

To call the dangers of this legislation "death panels" obscures the real-life consequences to Americans, not only the elderly, of a federal government-run health-care bureaucracy. In the Senate bill, for instance, Medicare doctors whose treatments of certain, mostly elderly, patients costs more than a set government figure each year, will be punished by losing part of their own incomes.

Not only Medicare doctors will be monitored for their cost-effectiveness. In the House bill, as Cato Institute's health-care specialist Michael Tanner explains (New York Post, Nov. 8), "111 government agencies, boards, commissions and other bureaucracies – all overseen by a new health-care czar," the commissioner of health-care choices, will keep watch on what the president has called excessive, wasteful health-care expenditures.

Moreover, President Obama has made clear that eventually he desires a U.S. equivalent of the British National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, a commission that decides which drugs and procedures for patients are within the national budget for health care. The current baseline expenditure for each Briton, according to Michael Tanner, is $44,305 per year.

Read the rest here.

Jill Stanek - Obamacare's biggest hurdle: The Manhattan Declaration

On Nov. 20, the historic Manhattan Declaration was unveiled, just what my distraught spirit had been yearning. I became its 218,525th signer.

The Manhattan Declaration is a momentous 4,700-word manifesto authored by Chuck Colson, Dr. Robert George, and Dr. Timothy George, with input from many Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical leaders. Colson calls it "one of the most important [documents] in my lifetime."

The Manhattan Declaration draws a line in the sand on the 3 paramount issues of our time: the sanctity of human life, the sanctity of marriage as the holy and conjugal union of husband and wife, and the rights of religious liberty and conscience....

Manhattan Declaration drafters are inviting all like-minded believers to sign on, but the potential ramifications for doing so are sobering.

As Dr. James Dobson explained on his Nov. 23 Focus on the Family radio program, insofar as his signing of the Manhattan Declaration pertained to passage of socialized health care with publicly funded abortion:

I don't say this glibly at all. ... Shirley and I will not be able to comply. That is absolutely untenable to us, because it would make us participants in the killing of babies, and we can't and we won't do that. Now I don't know where all of this is leading or what the implications of it are, but if we have to pay ruinous fines, or have to go to prison, or even if we have to leave this beloved country and spend the rest of our lives in exile, that's what we are prepared to do.

This must be the mettle of Manhattan Declaration signers....

Continue reading Jill's column this week, "Obamacare's biggest hurdle: The Manhattan Declaration," at WorldNetDaily.com. 

Bipartisan Lawmakers Sponsor Stupak Amdt to Cut Abortion Funds in Senate Bill

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Sen. Ben Nelson, a pro-life Democrat from Nebraska, confirmed today that he is working on an amendment to the Senate version of the government-run health care bill that would remove abortion funding from it. He said the amendment would be similar to language adopted in the House.

Nelson is joined by Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, for a bipartisan amendment they hope will attract more of their colleagues.

During the House debate on the health care bill, lawmakers adopted the Stupak amendment on a strongly bipartisan vote.

That amendment removed the abortion funding found in the government-run public option and the affordability credits -- both of which are contained in the bill Senate leader Harry Reid proposed.

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Democrat Ben Nelson Sponsoring Stupak Amdt to Cut Abortion Funds in Senate Bill

Sen. Ben Nelson, a pro-life Democrat from Nebraska, confirmed today that he is working on an amendment to the Senate version of the government-run health care bill that would remove abortion funding from it. He said the amendment would be similar to language adopted in the House.

During the House debate on the health care bill, lawmakers adopted, on a strongly bipartisan vote, the Stupak amendment.

That amendment removed the abortion funding found in the government-run public option and the affordability credits -- both of which are contained in the bill Senate leader Harry Reid proposed.

Nelson said today he plans to offer an amendment that is virtually identical to the Stupak amendment in the House, saying the only difference is in what is changed in the differently-worded bills but adding that the thrust is the same.

"I'm working on an abortion amendment," Nelson told reporters, according to Politico. "It's as identical to Stupak as it can be."

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