Evangelical college cancels student health insur. over birth control misinformation

[GMDino]

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/30/evangelical_college_cancels_student_health_insurance_plan_over_birth_control_misinformation/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Quote:Because nothing says you’re taking a stand for all that’s good and right like making it harder for young people to have access to decent, affordable healthcare, as of Friday Wheaton College will stop providing health insurance for students. I don’t know about you, but I feel closer to God just thinking about it.

The announcement was made earlier this month in response to a long contentious element of the Affordable Care Act that would include coverage for contraception. As the Chicago Tribune reports, “Wheaton College was among dozens of Christian nonprofits, as well as businesses such as Hobby Lobby, that argued the mandate was an assault on religious freedom. The college appears to be one of the first to move its protracted legal battle from the courtroom to campus…. Officials at the west suburban evangelical school said a compromise provision that would require them to notify the government of their religious objections would prompt the school’s insurance carrier to provide the coverage directly to students.”

And that, I guess, would be morally untenable. The decision will affect roughly seven hundred students, or about a quarter of the student body, by, as reporter Manya Brachear Pashman says, ”forcing them to shop for other plans just weeks before their coverage ends.” At issue, mainly, is coverage of IUDs and morning-after pills, which some religious groups view as a form of abortion — and which, by the way, are not. Two years ago, George Washington University health policy professor Susan Wood made it clear when speaking to NPR, “It is not only factually incorrect, it is downright misleading. These products are not abortifacients. And their only connection to abortion is that they can prevent the need for one.”

Speaking to students last week, Paul Chelsen, the school’s vice president of student development, explained, “What has brought us here is about student health insurance, but it’s bigger than student health insurance. What really breaks my heart is that there are real people that are affected by our decision. But if we don’t win this case, the implications down the road in terms of what the government will tell us what we can and cannot do will be potentially more significant. I acknowledge that students have been hurt by this decision and I regret that.”

And I’m sure that will mean so much to the students — especially international ones and those who aren’t riding on their parents’ plans — for whom an emergency room visit or prenatal care could soon be a catastrophic expense. And the irony, especially for an evangelical institution, is a school like theirs is less likely to attract students who even support or need access to emergency contraception. Because principles! On the upside, the school says the decision “doesn’t affect access to the campus health clinic” and won’t affect employees, and that it will “set aside money to help students who might struggle to pay for an increase in the cost of insurance” while investigating a possible student self-insured plan.

The college, whose Web site was inexplicably down Thursday, has been busy taking plenty of heat on its Facebook page from users noting, “Pregnancy and childbirth was the #1 killer of women in all of human history. Thank you Wheaton for returning to the Stone Age.” A spokesperson told the Chicago Tribune that the school remains “committed to doing everything it can to provide high-quality health care in accordance with its religious convictions.” Whatever that means.

It’s understandable that if you’re an institution with conservative religious values, it may be difficult to reconcile those with the workings of the larger outside world. Schools don’t exist in a bubble, and that can lead to hard choices if they don’t wish to create a divide between what they preach and what they permit. It also often leads to a whole lot of spiteful and shortsighted behavior, like forcing out hard-working and well-regarded teachers because they’re gay, or cutting off the most vulnerable members of your community from more efficient access to basic healthcare. How very Christian. I’m sure Jesus would be thrilled.

[StLucieBengal]

No need they can be on their parents until 26.

Problem solved

[GMDino]

(07-30-2015, 07:39 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: No need they can be on their parents until 26.  

Problem solved

Quote:international ones and those who aren’t riding on their parents’ plans — for whom an emergency room visit or prenatal care could soon be a catastrophic expense. 

[StLucieBengal]

Don't internation students need to get insurance to come here? Plenty of services

[fredtoast]

(07-30-2015, 11:26 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: Don't internation students need to get insurance to come here?  Plenty of services

What about students who are not on their parents plans?

[StLucieBengal]

(07-31-2015, 01:08 AM)fredtoast Wrote: What about students who are not on their parents plans?

They get obamacare

[Belsnickel]

(07-30-2015, 11:26 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: Don't internation students need to get insurance to come here? Plenty of services

They do, and for the most part that insurance is available through the schools they attend. We have very few domestic students that have the insurance through the school, but most of our international students utilize it. The only ones that don't are like the ones from Saudi Arabia that are getting a free ride from their country.

[fredtoast]

(07-31-2015, 01:45 AM)StLucieBengal Wrote: They get obamacare

You have to earn over $20K a year (or something like that) to be eligible for the tax credits under the ACA.

[*bfine32*]

The school is not required to provide insurance and they cannot based on their religious beliefs. They are also offering hardship funding to some students effected by this. Do people think the school is required to provide insurance or that it is a student's right to be given insurance?

To me it's pretty simple. If you do not share the beliefs of the University go elsewhere. Why would someone want to go to a school that was not inline with their beliefs?

[fredtoast]

(07-31-2015, 05:15 PM)bfine32 Wrote:  Do people think the school is required to provide insurance or that it is a student's right to be given insurance?

No, but it seems like that would be the "Christian" thing to do.  That is the point.  No one says the school is required to do it.  But it just seems mean-spirited and petty thing for a Christian institution to do.

[fredtoast]

(07-31-2015, 05:15 PM)bfine32 Wrote: To me it's pretty simple. If you do not share the beliefs of the University go elsewhere. Why would someone want to go to a school that was not inline with their beliefs?

Then the school should just enact a rule that forbids the use of birth control by students and still provide health insurance.

Why get rid of all the good involved in providing health insurance just over one minor issue? The Pope never said there was anything sinful about health insurance did he?

Seems to me they are just being cheap.

[Belsnickel]

(07-31-2015, 05:15 PM)bfine32 Wrote: To me it's pretty simple. If you do not share the beliefs of the University go elsewhere. Why would someone want to go to a school that was not inline with their beliefs?

This. You wouldn't catch me doing anything with Liberty. I'd go to one of the Anabaptist colleges around here like Bridgewater or EMU, but never Liberty.

[*bfine32*]

(07-31-2015, 06:31 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Then the school should just enact a rule that forbids the use of birth control by students and still provide health insurance.

How do you recommend they enforce that?

[fredtoast]

(07-31-2015, 07:55 PM)bfine32 Wrote: How do you recommend they enforce that?

The same way they enforce all their other rules regarding student behavior.  I am sure they have rules against using other illegal drugs in addition to all sorts of other behavior.  So they just use the same techniques.

[RICHMONDBENGAL_07]

(07-31-2015, 07:53 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: This. You wouldn't catch me doing anything with Liberty. I'd go to one of the Anabaptist colleges around here like Bridgewater or EMU, but never Liberty.

Girl I work with goes to Liberty.  Actually it's my boss's daughter.  Weird scenario, she and her sister are really religious, but their parents are not at all.  It's usually opposite.

[GMDino]

(07-31-2015, 07:55 PM)bfine32 Wrote: How do you recommend they enforce that?

Insurance reports that Sally wants her birth control pills refilled...school boots her.

Love thy neighbor or something like that.

Its in the bible...I'm sure.

[*bfine32*]

(08-01-2015, 12:06 PM)fredtoast Wrote: The same way they enforce all their other rules regarding student behavior.  I am sure they have rules against using other illegal drugs in addition to all sorts of other behavior.  So they just use the same techniques.

(08-01-2015, 01:15 PM)GMDino Wrote: Insurance reports that Sally wants her birth control pills refilled...school boots her.

Love thy neighbor or something like that.

Its in the bible...I'm sure.

Perhaps if there wasn't such a thing as HIPPA and/or Patient-Doctor confidentiality.

[StLucieBengal]

If the students don't like it then just go to another school. Just like bfine said. No one forces them to go there ....

[fredtoast]

(08-01-2015, 01:52 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: If the students don't like it then just go to another school.   Just like bfine said.     No one forces them to go there ....

No one is forcing anyone to join the Westboro Baptist Church either, but we can still call them a bunch of dicks for the way they act.

[StLucieBengal]

(08-01-2015, 02:39 PM)fredtoast Wrote: No one is forcing anyone to join the Westboro Baptist Church either, but we can still call them a bunch of dicks for the way they act.

That analogy might work if you were joining the church and then complaining about how they conduct themselves.