Who’s the boss on health care?

Just before noon on Thursday, the Senate voted 51-48 against a bipartisan amendment offered by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) that would have spared religious groups the choice of breaching faith or having government fines imposed on them through a now-infamous Obamacare mandate.

The liberals who blocked religious freedom defended the Obama administration’s anti-conscience mandate. That mandate will force insurance plans, including those carried by religious employers, to provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilization — even if such coverage violates their beliefs.

Only houses of worship will be exempted from the mandate. Members of religious groups that serve the public by providing health care, education and basic food and shelter will be forced to violate their consciences or face penalties for non-compliance or dropping coverage.

Rather than defend religious liberty, liberals have prattled on about “bosses in bedrooms.” They need to get their facts straight.

For starters, liberals should make it plain who’s the real boss now when it comes to Obamacare. It’s not the person buying the insurance; it’s Kathleen Sebelius — President Obama’s secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Let’s be clear. Conservatives want all Americans to have freedom of choice in health care. They have a big, long track record on this issue.

Real choice. That means if you want to choose a plan from a union, a trade association or your employer, it should be your decision. It also means you should have the right to choose the health benefit package you want, including desired medical treatments and procedures.

This kind of personal health coverage decision should be a personal matter — not a mandate from your employer, some state bureaucrat or the HHS secretary, a political appointee. If Americans had that kind of choice, we would have more freedom in health care decisions than we’ve had in decades. And we’d have far more freedom than we’re about to have under Obamacare.

There’s one big reason why you can’t simply get the health plan you want. If you get your coverage through your boss, you get it tax free. If you want a plan other than the one offered by your employer, you can buy it, but only with “after-tax” dollars. That means paying much bigger premiums, possibly as much as 50 percent more for the same package of benefits available at your job.

The right policy would be to open up the health insurance marketplace and tie tax breaks for insurance coverage to the person rather than simply his or her place of employment. We should let Americans buy the coverage they want without being subject to big tax or regulatory penalties, let alone nasty fines.

Continued on Page 2 >>