Can Catholics Support Obamacare?

Can Catholics Support Obamacare?

By Ryan Ellis on 7.28.09 @ 4:12PM

As Congress heads toward its August recess, Washington is questioning whether the Democrat Congress and President Obama will be able to pass a healthcare bill this year. Most of the attention thus far has focused on the hundreds of billions in new taxes, the control board the government will set up, the escalting costs of the plans, etc.

But the most interesting pushback, at least for me, is from many quarters of the Catholic Church.

Raymond Arroyo over at EWTN recently posted a very helpful summary of what the Church's major objections would be to Obamacare as it is coming together. They include:

1. Federal funding of abortion and/or federal requirements that all insurance plans cover abortion on demand
2. Lack of any meaningful rights of conscience for health care providers. Without this, doctors and nurses could be compelled to perform abortions, issue contraceptives, sterilize, euthanize, etc.
3. A chilling requirement for Medicare beneficiaries to go into end of life counseling every five years. The idea would be to bully them into euthanizing themselves. Old people that linger on are a major driver of health care costs. The most effective rationing is to get rid of old folks.

Any one of these three would be enough to spook most faithful Catholics. All three of them result in a total deal-breaker.

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I'd like to add that it's excellent that our Bishops are working hard to give the American people better healthcare than the current administration seems intent on giving us. I heartily applaud our Bishops efforts, and I hope that America will be blessed with a good solution.

This article is a few months old, but I thought it looked interesting.