SCOTUS Sides with Hobby Lobby on Contraception Mandate

[selfinflikted]

Supreme Court's ruling sides with Hobby Lobby on contraception mandate - POLITICO.com

Thoughts?

 

[Paradoxum]

So employers don't have to provide any medical help that they say goes against their religion? Such healthcare coverage doesn't seem that great then.

Being British, I don't fully understand the US system though. I'm too oppressed by my inclusive 'free' national healthcare.

 

[selfinflikted]

So employers don't have to provide any medical help that they say goes against their religion? What's the point in the healthcare then?

Well, the crux is employers can't be forced to do so by the new Affordable Care act. What's worse, is this opens the door for all kind of "opt outs" due to religious whatevers.

 

[BL2KTN]

The whole thing is broken, so this kind of crap is what results. Medical costs would drop steeply if insurance was part of the free market, not tied into businesses provision nor government handouts. And, as a byproduct, individuals would pick if they wanted contraceptive covered if the market was allowed to work as most other things do.

Food is free market = cheap.
Medical care is controlled by government and business = expensive.

 

[Paradoxum]

Well, the crux is employers can't be forced to do so by the new Affordable Care act. What's worse, is this opens the door for all kind of "opt outs" due to religious whatevers.

Hummm

The whole thing is broken, so this kind of crap is what results. Medical costs would drop steeply if insurance was part of the free market, not tied into businesses provision nor government handouts. And, as a byproduct, individuals would pick if they wanted contraceptive covered if the market was allowed to work as most other things do.

Food is free market = cheap.
Medical care is controlled by government and business = expensive.

Actually, in the UK the amount we spend on healthcare is lower, and we have national healthcare.

 

[FireDragon76]

This is disappointing. What's to stop businesses from objecting to laws for any crackpot religious reason, now?

My belief is that if a family has objections to covering employees healthcare costs, including birth control... they should simply not be in business as a company. Nobody has an inalienable right to profit- companies get their charter from the state (as is still acknowledge in the UK under their laws, but this has been obscured in the US due to neoliberal economics) and they have to operate within the rules of the state.

 

[selfinflikted]

This is disappointing. What's to stop businesses from objecting to laws for any crackpot religious reason, now?

Exactly.

 

[Queller]

Medical costs would drop steeply if insurance was part of the free market, not tied into businesses provision nor government handouts.

How do you provide something via the free market that is not tied into business provisions?

 

[bhsmte]

.

 

[Dave Ellis]

The whole thing is broken, so this kind of crap is what results. Medical costs would drop steeply if insurance was part of the free market, not tied into businesses provision nor government handouts. And, as a byproduct, individuals would pick if they wanted contraceptive covered if the market was allowed to work as most other things do.

Food is free market = cheap.
Medical care is controlled by government and business = expensive.

The thing is, that has no basis in reality. Health care costs in the United States is almost twice as expensive per capita as many countries with universal coverage.

 

[selfinflikted]

The thing is, that has no basis in reality. Health care costs in the United States is almost twice as expensive per capita as many countries with universal coverage.

This. I think part of the reason it's so bad is because it's gone on too long in an unfettered private sector.

 

[bhsmte]

The thing is, that has no basis in reality. Health care costs in the United States is almost twice as expensive per capita as many countries with universal coverage.

Correct and there are several reasons why, which are unique to either American lifestyle and or American laws:

-Americans are not as healthy as people in many other countries, with a very high rate of obesity
-Litigation is open season in the United States and drives up liability coverage and inspires, defensive medicine practices
-Insurance companies are middle men and they take their profits in the healthcare process and this drives up costs
-Medical technology and medications are advanced in the US and cost money
-Physicians make more money in the United States, with specialists raking in 50% or more than similar physicians in other advanced countries.

Add those all up and it gets pricey.

 

[KCfromNC]

Supreme Court's ruling sides with Hobby Lobby on contraception mandate - POLITICO.com

Thoughts?

Yay! Corporations are now legally people with religious beliefs, and claiming having those beliefs allows them to break the law. Especially when those claiming those beliefs allows a company to save money. What could possibly go wrong with that sort of thinking?

But it isn't surprising - the Catholic church threatens members who don't vote against abortion-related legislation, and 5 of 6 Catholic justices vote against abortion related legislation. In any other situation that would be really suspicious, but I guess this is different for some reason.

 

[KCfromNC]

This is disappointing. What's to stop businesses from objecting to laws for any crackpot religious reason, now?

Presumably the religious make-up of the court would make them less sympathetic to non-Catholic-church-approved crackpot religious reasons. But as long as some old white dudes in funny hats give the OK we can assume that US law doesn't apply to corporations who pretend to be [the right kind of] religious.

 

[FireDragon76]

I understand the court's reasoning now... apparently because there is an exemption for non-profits, the court felt the exemption should apply to for-profit corporations as well. So the court is effectively blaming the law's technicalities.

I still think it's rotten, but I don't think it'll open the door to every religious objection now.

 

[KWCrazy]

The thing is, that has no basis in reality. Health care costs in the United States is almost twice as expensive per capita as many countries with universal coverage.

Not one item in the Obamacare bill addressed costs, only control. Cost cutting measures are vigorously opposed by the lawyers and others who get fat off those inflated costs.

 

[AceHero]

So employers don't have to provide any medical help that they say goes against their religion? Such healthcare coverage doesn't seem that great then.

Being British, I don't fully understand the US system though. I'm too oppressed by my inclusive 'free' national healthcare.

I don't think anyone really understands our healthcare system other than the fact that it's mostly terrible.

 

[theophilus777]

This. I think part of the reason it's so bad is because it's gone on too long in an unfettered private sector.

If you think there is anything "unfettered" about US health care, you do not understand what a free market is. For example, if consumers could choose their provider with cost info up-front, that one change alone would make our entire system unrecognizable. That's one good thing Medicare / medicaid accomplishes. So then many providers simply refuse to take it.

 

[theophilus777]

I don't think anyone really understands our healthcare system other than the fact that it's mostly terrible.

Well that and we have to pass the law to know what's even in it. So we have that going for us.

 

[Autumnleaf]

So employers don't have to provide any medical help that they say goes against their religion? Such healthcare coverage doesn't seem that great then.

Being British, I don't fully understand the US system though. I'm too oppressed by my inclusive 'free' national healthcare.

Its so free its going broke so they're privatizing it.

Nothing of value is free. Somebody always pays for it.