Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Religious Exemptions for Secular Jobs?
Under the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there is a religious exemption causing quite the controversy. The exemption states that all employers must provide contraception and sterilization as a part of their employees health coverage, unless you are a religious institution opposed to such things as it applies strongly to your religion. This exemption is not solely for churches or other places of worship, but it also applies to religious-based schools and hospitals. Due to the widespread nature of this exemption, it is not solely Catholics that will be affected.
This exemption means that everyone hired to work at a religious based institution, for example a Catholic hospital, can be denied the healthcare benefits of contraception, even though the majority of employees may not share those beliefs or they may even not be Catholic at all. Thus, this exemption may create more unwanted pregnancies and babies. It may also result in more sicknesses, due to women trying to get an abortion cheaply, since their healthcare does not cover it. However, there is also the push for religious-based hospitals to become more secular in their policies, particularly since so few employees at such institutions are Catholic at all. Another aspect to consider is that almost 1/5 of all hospitals in the United States are Catholic. That is a lot of women that will not be allotted affordable birth control by their healthcare provider.
Another reason why this exemption seems so unfair is because the Department of Health and Human Services recently mandated that employers insurance coverage for their employees must include contraceptive services and counseling free of additional cost, unless they are covered under religious exemption. Thus, if every other employee across the country is receiving these benefits, why should some people be denied that right? This is particularly an issue because most of the people hired at Catholic hospitals are hired for a secular purpose and no aspect of their job entails any sort of religiosity. If one’s job does not entail any sort of religious work, then why should their healthcare benefits deny you things because of a religious belief?
There are some highly religious people that are gunning towards an even more inclusive religious exemption. As it is, I believe that this exemption has enough state interest that it should not have been included in the first place. This is one instance of belief vs. action where the state should intervene. Even though these are religious based institutions, they exist for secular purposes. If the institutions serve a secular purpose, than the healthcare offered to their employees should be secular as well.
If an employee does hold those Catholic beliefs, than she does not have to make use of the added healthcare benefits, but don’t take it away from others who do not share those beliefs. I understand religious exemptions for perhaps a church, but I do not believe that religious exemptions should apply to institutions that have secular purposes.
Tags:
0 Responses to “Religious Exemptions for Secular Jobs?”
Post a Comment