Federal employees to be offered Catholic insurance plan…

Yikes! The Bush administration announced a new plan last week that would offer federal employees a Catholic health plan that deliberately excludes coverage for birth control, abortion, sterilization and artificial insemination.
This “faith-based” insurance plan, while touted as a way to “empower” employees to have greater control over their medical care, is just another way the Bush administration is attempting to blur the line between Church and State.
…some critics expressed concern that this trend in health care might grow into a wider phenomenon. Is this “explicit denial” the first step in “denying federal employees a normal benefit that has been traditional for 30 years?” asked Philip R. Lee, a professor of social medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a former assistant secretary for health in the Clinton administration. “Is this simply the opening wedge?”
Of course it is! And that’s exactly what Bush wants; he isn’t offering this plan because he wants Americans to have more insurance options, he’s putting it in place as part of his larger agenda to limit our options concerning reproductive health. What could be more obvious?
Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) told the NY Times: “Medical care is a science. Getting medical care and religion mixed together is just as bad as getting church and state mixed together.”
I would say it’s not just as bad—it’s the same thing.