Lungrens reaction to White House 'accommodation' of First Ammendment Rights

Congressman Dan Lungren (R-Gold River) today reacted to the White House’s “accommodation” of First Amendment rights to conscientious objectors of his controversial health care law.  He stated:

 “While we were assured at the time of its passage that the health care bill was not about the imposition of social policy on the American public and institutions of our society, we now know otherwise. The idea that insurance companies are going to provide free coverage for items contained in the Administration’s order reflects a misunderstanding of the business of insurance.  Under its ‘accommodation,’ the religious employer continues to pay premiums that contribute to the revenues of the insurers. 


“The money paid by religious employers for what will inevitably be higher premiums thereby frees up insurer funds to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception in violation of their strongly held beliefs.  This remains an excessive entanglement of government disguised as an attempt to step back from a policy fundamentally wrong at its core.

“The purported retreat of the White House from a misguided mandate on religious employers reflects a much deeper problem with the entire health care law.  We have a health care law with top-down mandates that are opposed by the public.  Because the health care legislation was jammed through Congress without a real debate, we have been forced to wait for the dictates of the federal bureaucracy to tell us what it really means.  Perhaps this was what the former Speaker meant when she observed that ‘We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.’ ”