Religious Freedom. Worth Keeping.

It’s that time again.  Find a list of locations here.  If you aren’t able to attend one, think now about what you could do tomorrow — prayer, fasting, offering something up, doing a work of mercy — to stand in solidarity with those who are showing up on your behalf.

Reminder: This is a not a partisan issue.  This is not about money.  If it were about money, the US government would do just as well requiring employers to set aside the necessary amount of health care savings, and leave it to employees to decide whether or not they need this or that type of insurance.

To gather the critical number of participants per plan, the US government is entirely capable of asking health insurers to organize their policies by groups of some kind other than “employees of this” and “employees of that”.  You could, say, simply pool all people in each state who want a particular level of insurance from a particular provider into a single insurance pool.  Not complicated.  The alternatives are myriad.  It is absolutely not necessary to require employers to purchase specific products directly.

Does your boss buy your Christmas tree?  Your hot dogs?  Your swimsuit?  It is entirely legitimate for the government to require employers to pay fair wages, including sufficient amounts to cover health care costs.  It is not legitimate to require individual employers to purchase products directly for their employees, with no regard for the employer’s religious beliefs.  Or the employee’s beliefs.  Please, no, give my money to charity, I don’t need that ____.