So many issues to be solved . . .

So the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case in which several religious non-profit organizations are asking to be exempt from including Obamacare-mandated contraception coverage in the insurance they provide for their employees.  This gets into at least two major national issues, religious liberty and healthcare reform.  

Let's start with the healthcare angle.  I've said before that I see no reason for employers to be involved in providing healthcare.  The practice began decades ago as a means of offering value, or perks, to attract and retain employees without raising wages.  Requiring companies to do so, as Obamacare does, only perpetuates this absurd situation.  It obliges all companies to become expert in a field outside their own industry; it removes choice from the employees as the company must make those decisions instead; it increases costs to the company (and the entire system) without actually providing any direct health care.  When President Obama first called for national healthcare reform, he spoke of a national, single-payer system.  My vision of such a system is one that would eliminate employers and insurance companies from the equation entirely.  Both of these entities are mere middle men who add no value to our national healthcare enterprise.  Employers, as I've already said,  have to add staff with some expertise in health benefit systems, to research, select, offer, explain and provide coverage to the employees.  Insurers simply pay the medical and other health-related bills that would otherwise be paid by consumers (patients).  Meanwhile, these insurers are profit-driven companies like any other with high executive salaries and bonuses that must be paid by this system.  As a sign that this system is convoluted, please consider that our current healthcare insurance model is the only type of insurance we buy that we really try to collect from.  We also buy auto, home, theft and life insurance, but we never hope to need to file a claim against them.  A system of national healthcare should be run by the federal government, paid for by taxes, available to all citizens, and need only cover catastrophic needs.  We don't need coverage for routine care.

With regard to the religious liberty issues, we cannot allow citizens to claim exemption on religious grounds from any area of life where they feel offended.  We all need to realize that we live in a diverse nation and that we will rub elbows with non-believers of every stripe from time to time.  In this case, these religious organizations operate as employers, and as such they need to comply to the same rules imposed upon all employers.  The organizations may retain their beliefs and values, but they cannot be allowed to take away the legal choices of their employees.  When providing health care insurance, they are doing just that: providing insurance.  It is up to the employee to decide how he or she uses that insurance.  The employer is not paying for contraception or abortive measures; the employer is simply providing medical insurance, period.  An analogy would be if I paid my taxes and was able to tell the government that I'd allow this money to be used for highways, foreign aid and art museums, but not for military use or federal employee wages because I had "strong" beliefs against government workers including the military.

Wow!  It feels really good to have that problem solved.  I know these issues are far more complex than I've made them out to be; but do they really need to be?

Thanks for reading, and God bless.