To the editor:
What will we Americans do to save 53,000 American lives every year? Twenty-seven million Americans could lose coverage in the first year of repeal of the Affordable Care Act, according to the Congressional Budget Office. This is in addition to the 26 million who did not have health insurance in 2015. A Harvard School of Public Health study finds that for every thousand people without health care, one dies each year.
An order of Sisters has been quietly caring for the elderly for many years. Founded by Sr. Jeanne Jugan in 1839 in France, the Little Sisters of the Poor now serve in over 30 countries of the world.
The Sisters’ website describes their mission “to offer the neediest elderly of every race and religion a home where they will be welcomed as Christ, cared for as family, and accompanied with dignity until God calls them to himself.”
The State Senate gave its approval to legislation to prohibit health insurance providers that participate in future state exchanges from including elective abortions in their coverage.
A new federal mandate on health care coverage is posing a threat to the religious freedom of Church-affiliated employers, including Catholic hospitals, universities, and charitable institutions.
Health insurance plans are being required to provide reproductive services for women including contraceptives and sterilization procedures, as well as for drugs that may cause an abortion both before and after implantation.
To the editor:
Tony Magliano has a habit of confusing Church teaching with his progressive opinions. His most recent November 4 column begins post election recalling the “quite difficult” decision in voting for the “most ethical candidates.” It was not difficult; most were clearly either pro-life or pro-choice, the first qualifying factor according to our pope and bishops.
In August of 2009, the Catholic bishops of all five dioceses in Wisconsin wrote a letter sharing their “deep concern” about a provision in the new state budget that would require providers of health insurance to include contraceptive services as a “mandated benefit.”
The bishops were concerned because this mandate would “compel Catholic dioceses, parishes, and other agencies that buy health insurance to pay for a medical service that Catholic teaching holds to be gravely immoral.”
Wisconsin’s bishops have called a provision in the recently enacted state budget that mandates health insurance policies cover contraceptive services as “blatantly insensitive” to the moral values of Catholics. The bishops commented on the provision in a letter to Catholics. The letter is being distributed to the state’s diocesan newspapers.
The Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) is asking legislators to delete two budget provisions that will impede the religious liberty of Catholic organizations and their employees.
Our Lady of Hope Clinic announced that it will open its doors to the public for an open house on Tuesday, March 24, from 3 to 7 p.m.
