What if 12.6 percent of the hospitals in America outright close?
What if Catholic bishops aren’t bluffing?
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/03/01/what-if-catholic-bishops-arent-bluffing/
Earlier this week, Francis Cardinal George of the archdiocese of Chicago sent a message to parishioners in Barack Obama’s home town that imposition of the HHS mandate to fund and facilitate contraception, abortifacients, and sterilization would force the Catholic Church to close its hospitals, clinics, schools, and all other organizations that would otherwise have to comply. “Two Lents from now,” Cardinal George warned, “unless something changes, the page [listing Catholic organizations] will be blank.”
SNIP
The Catholic Church has perhaps the most extensive private health-care delivery system in the nation. It operates 12.6 percent of hospitals in the U.S., according to the Catholic Health Association of the U.S., accounting for 15.6 percent of all admissions and 14.5 percent of all hospital expenses, a total for Catholic hospitals in 2010 of $98.6 billion. Whom do these hospitals serve? Catholic hospitals handle more than their share of Medicare (16.6 percent) and Medicaid (13.65) discharges, meaning that more than one in six seniors and disabled patients get attention from these hospitals, and more than one in every eight low-income patients as well. Almost a third (32 percent) of these hospitals are located in rural areas, where patients usually have few other options for care.
SNIP
Of course, it’s not just hospitals. The Catholic Church runs over 7500 primary and secondary education schools in the US (where over a third of students are non-Catholics), educating more than 2.5 million students. Thanks to a near-blanket moratorium on vouchers, taxpayer money doesn’t get used in teaching these students in a system that has a 99% graduation rate and a 97% success rate at placing students in college. Based on an average student cost of $8000 in public schools, Catholic schools save taxpayers about $20 billion dollars a year.
I would expect that, if that happened, the Government would step in to take over (buy?, nationalize?) those institutions, particularly the hospitals.
I think it probably is a bluff though as the Bishops must realize that doing such would leave the Church on the short end of the political stick. The state of religion is such that most Catholics would blame them, not Obama — just as most Catholics voted for Obama despite their urging.
Look for some figleaf “compromise” that will keep this from happening.
obamas rich connected supporters will just buy those hospitols and run them under new management
better the Catholics stay open and let obama’s FEMA youth army and SEIU/TSA muggers haul them to jail for refusal to submit or pay Mammon his fines
there will be an increasing need for hospice care for people over 60 who have used up their govt allotted lifetime “fair share” of medical care, per obamacare calculations