Forced to Pay for Abortion
If you have health insurance in New York, you are paying for abortion. All health insurance plans renewed in New York State as of August 2012 will directly cover abortion-causing contraception, for ‘FREE’. This means if you are enrolled in a traditional health insurance plan, a percentage of your dollars is going straight toward funding abortion. Click HERE for CompassCare’s FACT SHEET.
If you are an individual of deep moral conviction, you cannot opt out. If you run a business with more than fifty full-time employees, you cannot opt out. If you are a faith-based non-profit whose mission is to ‘erase the need for abortion,’ you cannot opt out. The only two entities that can opt out of these mandates are States and ‘religious institutions,’ now narrowly defined by a secular federal government. For background information on the impact of these HHS mandates (click here) and to listen to a comprehensive Biblical perspective on abortion click here.
There are times in the journey of every Christian life that require sacrifice in order to live consistently with our faith. These decisions force us to live in ways that are not just different but counter to the very culture in which we live. These times are rare and if the right decisions are made could prove to be great opportunities to grow our faith and expand God’s Kingdom. I believe Obamacare is giving every American Christian just such an opportunity. Allow me to explain.
The moral dilemma for every Christian in New York and elsewhere is this: Pay for abortion directly through your insurance premiums or go without healthcare
Count the Cost
insurance. Obamacare does not say we can’t believe abortion is wrong. What it does say is that we have no right to live out our faith in practical ways that differ from a secular moral agenda. It looks as though we must choose between our physical health and our spiritual health. And what will the people of God do? This letter is a result of many weeks of inquiry and debate at CompassCare and represents our conclusions.
The ONLY option we can find that would allow us to exercise our right of conscience and NOT pay for abortion is to join a Christian medical cost-sharing ministry like Samaritan Ministries or Medi-Share for example. These programs are not technically health insurance and so are not susceptible to the egregious abortion mandates. But it will require sacrifice as neither covers pre-existing conditions. To offset those costs CompassCare decided to set up a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) from which employees can draw for those ongoing issues.
CompassCare believes that if we do not draw the line here with our reputations, well-being, and fortunes on behalf of the pre-born we, in our infernal pragmatism, would come to understand too late that ‘friendship with the world is enmity with God’ (James 4:4). CompassCare has chosen to stand in faith because we cannot fathom the thought of real human beings dying just so we can retain the benefit of our own personal health insurance.
Bear One Another’s Burdens
Think with me for a minute: 5% of the population of Monroe County, or about 50,000 people, regularly attend an evangelical church. And the average family’s health insurance premium is $700 per month or approximately $8400 per year. The expense of cost-sharing ministries is about half of traditional high deductible plans at about $350/month for a family. If just 10% of the evangelical church-goers opted out of traditional insurance that would free up $42 million PER YEAR! Half of that money would go directly to cost-sharing with other Christians and the other $21 million could go to church medical benevolent funds to cover the pre-existing conditions of the church membership.
This decision to opt out of traditional health insurance would require two things of us: 1) Trusting our souls to a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19) and 2) A strong
commitment to, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). But then what is our faith for if not for adversity? Let us bear one another’s burdens both in word and now in deed ‘[considering] this momentary light affliction’ (2 Corinthians 4:17) ‘all joy’ (James 1:2). May we all count the cost (Luke 14: 28) and answer the call to, “. . . ‘come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord and ‘do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you.’” (2 Corinthians 6:17).