Sign Petition (here) to:
STOP Roy Blunt (R) Amendment That Allows Employers To Deny Health Services To Jews, Catholics and Children
Senator Roy Blunt's Amendment, S.AMEND 1520 to S.1813 (text below), is clear in that it allows Employers to Deny Health "Services" to anyone they please so long as the Denier (Employer) of Health Services feels that to grant "PROVIDING COVERAGE IS CONTRARY TO MORAL CONVICTIONS of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering the plan [Employer]."
Notice Senator Blunt's Amendment goes beyond the age-old "Religious Freedom" argument to deny groups of people services by including a person's "Moral Conviction" as an excuse to discriminate against groups of people.
Also, notice Senator Blunt's Amendment goes beyond just cherry picking which legal, non-narcotic medicines will be covered in Health Insurance, but, can also deny any group of people, Jews Catholics Baptist, any Health SERVICES if "PROVIDING COVERAGE IS CONTRARY TO MORAL CONVICTIONS while at the same time provide coverage to employees they like or have no moral objection to.
Senator Blunt, and his 20 co-sponsors, are pretending that a persons' "Moral Conviction" is a Constitutional right to deny groups of people coverage and/or services ... but as seen in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, "Moral Conviction" to discriminate is not Constitutional Protected.
Senator Roy Blunt's Amendment would make the following legal:
....... IF: An employer thinks "Providing Coverage" to Jews, Catholics, Protestant, Evangelicals, Women, Men, Childhood Vaccines, Elderly etc is "Contrary To Their Moral Conviction"
....... THEN: The employer can deny coverage to those groups ... while at the same time, provide coverage to other employees of whom they like.
Bottom Line: Sen. Roy Blunt's Amendment, that 20 co-sponsors and Rep. Eric Cantor(R-Va) support, would make the 1965 Civil Rights Act null and void and employers would be legally allowed to deny Jews, Catholics etc Health Services.
Excerpts From Senator Roy Blunt's Amendment:
"A health plan shall not be considered to have failed to provide the essential health benefits package described in subsection (a) to fail to be a qualified health plan, or to fail to fulfill ANY OTHER requirement under this title on the basis that it declines to provide coverage of specific items OR SERVICES because:
‘‘(i) PROVIDING COVERAGE (or, in the case of a sponsor of a group health plan, paying for coverage) of such IS CONTRARY TO the religious beliefs OR MORAL CONVICTIONS of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering the plan; or
"(ii) SUCH COVERAGE (in the case of individual coverage) IS CONTRARY to the religious beliefs OR MORAL CONVICTIONS of the purchaser or beneficiary of the coverage.
"(C) Until enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148, in this section referred to as ``PPACA''), the Federal Government has not sought to impose specific coverage or care requirements that infringe on the rights of conscience of insurers, purchasers of insurance, plan sponsors, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders, such as individual or institutional health care providers."
Keywords in items (i) and (ii):
"Providing Coverage" "Or Services" "Is contrary to ... OR Moral Conviction" ... Not just "Religious Beliefs" but also "OR Moral Conviction"
See that, "because Providing Coverage [including basic health insurance coverage] is contrary to the moral conviction of the employer." Like I said, that language would allow an employer to provide health coverage to groups he/she like, but NOT cover groups he/she does NOT like on the grounds of "moral conviction."
Senator Blunt and his 20 co-sponsors are reviving the oppositions arguement of the 1964 Civil Rights Act regarding moral conviction and individual liberty to discriminate.
Item (C) is simply 100% false. For decades, the federal government has mandated that employers who provide coverage and/or care requirement to their employees do so in a non-discriminatory manner.
For Instance:
1) For decades, if an employer thinks it is contrary to his "Moral Conviction" and/or "Religious belief" for a person to take addictive narcotics ... the employers Health Plan may NOT Deny coverage for addictive narcotic medication prescribed to patients in hospitals.
2) For decades, if an employer thinks providing coverage to Jews or Catholics is contrary to his "Moral Conviction" and/or contrary to his "Religious belief" that employer has NOT been legally allowed to Deny Jews or Catholics Health Services if they offer ALL their other employees Health Services.
3) In 1986 President Ronald Reagan signed into law: Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act which mandated hospitals provide care to anyone needing emergency health services treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status, religion, gender or ability to pay.
Reagan's 1986 Law also mandates that: Inpatient care provided must be at an equal level for ALL patients and hospitals may not discharge a patient prior to stabilization if the patient's insurance is canceled or otherwise discontinues payment during course of stay.
and
4) Let's not forget about the Civil Rights Bill denying employers their "Moral Conviction" and/or their "Religious belief" to discriminate against groups of people.
Co-Sponsors and Supporters:
As of Sunday, February 11, 2012, The 20 Co-Sponsors of Senator Roy Blunt's (R) Amendment are:
Sen McConnell, Mitch [R-KY]
Sen Johanns, Mike [R-NE]
Sen Wicker, Roger F. [R-MS]
Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [R-UT]
Sen Ayotte, Kelly [R-NH]
Sen Rubio, Marco [R-FL]
Sen Nelson, E. Benjamin [D-NE]
Sen Roberts, Pat [R-KS]
Sen McCain, John [R-AZ]
Sen Kyl, Jon [R-AZ]
Sen Coats, Daniel [R-IN]
Sen Barrasso, John [R-WY]
Sen Toomey, Pat [R-PA]
Sen Lugar, Richard G. [R-IN]
Sen Cornyn, John [R-TX]
Sen Boozman, John [R-AR]
Sen Paul, Rand [R-KY]
Sen Shelby, Richard [R-AL]
Sen Hoeven, John [R-ND], and
Sen Graham, Lindsey [R-SC]
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and
House Majority Rep Paul Ryan also supports Blunt's Amendment
House Republican Leader Eric Cantor has tweeted his support for Roy Blunt's Amendment.
Senator Blunt said his Amendment is to
"Ensure that health care stakeholders retain the right to provide, purchase, or enroll in health coverage that is consistent with their religious beliefs and moral convictions”
.... and moral convictions?
Senator Mitch McConnell said,
"This is about freedom of religion, it’s right there in the First Amendment."
Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) said,
"There are enough votes in the Republican-controlled House to pass similar legislation."
Senator Marco Rubio said,
"Well, you know what it is, it's a constitutional issue. It is very simple. This is a straightforward concept. It's NOT about medicine."
.... It's not about medicine?
Yesterday, Senator Scott Brown's spokesman, John Donnelly told the Washington Post:
“Senator Brown appreciates President Obama’s willingness to revisit this issue, but believes it needs to be clarified through legislation. The senator signed onto bipartisan legislation that writes a conscience exemption into law, which is an important step toward ensuring that religious liberties are always protected.”
Seems Eric Cantor, Roy Blunt, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Brown and the 18 other co-sponsors falsely think that any person who has a "Moral Conviction" to discriminate against a group of people is protected under the First Amendment under the guise of "Religious Freedom" ...
they couldn't be more wrong.
For the record, Cantor, Blunt, McConnell, Rubio, and the 1 other co-sponsors must have missed the part of history where it became contitutionally illegal for an employer, regardless of their religion, to discriminate against groups of people.
Don't be fooled by the political clowns who want listeners to think the current Health Services discussion is about "contraception" -- as we see by Sen Roy Blunt (R) Amendment, the discussion is about clowns in Congress wanting to make the 1964 Civil Rights Act null and void so that employers can discriminate against groups of people based off of a personal, alleged, "Moral Conviction."
Sign the Petition (here) and tell Congress they must STOP Senator Roy Blunt's Amendment Allowing Employers To Deny Health Plans To Jews & Catholics.