Free Republic

The defenders of Obamacare, it is pretty obvious, don’t intend to stop with dictating that you buy insurance, and what kind of insurance, and how much you must pay. They want a nationalized health care plan like Great Britain’s. Obamacare is a step, albeit a big step, in that direction. So, what would it be like to put the government in charge of your health care? Isn’t that British system wonderful? Not exactly. But George Orwell would recognize it. “An elderly woman was ordered to find a new GP because the ‘carbon footprint’ of her two-mile round trips to the...

By 51-48 the Senate today killed the amendment to allow employers to refuse to cover health services when it conflicts with religious convictions, giving the Obama administration another victory in its steady march to undermine constitutional rights with administrative mandates. . . . This is all but inevitable as the government assumes more and more authority over of what people should be doing for themselves. And, perhaps worst of all, the orders come from faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats who make this stuff up to suit their political ideology. As we noted on Sunday, this is where the Administrative State takes us.

President Barack Obama has been hammered lately over his health mandate that every employer must provide insurance coverage for contraception, abortifacients and even sterilization, things many religious people find to be sinful, according to the tenets of their faith. As our editorial today points out, this is an egregious violation of First Amendment guarantees to the exercise of religious beliefs when the state demands people act against their beliefs. The White House today has suggested a compromise, which is transparently absurd...