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MSM Gives Us the Mushroom Treatment on HHS Mandate

By on 12.31.12 @ 6:09AM

The media are keeping us in the dark on Obamacare’s legal woes and feeding us Hobby Lobby.

In December, there were five federal court decisions relating to Obamacare. Chances are, however, that you will have heard about only one of them. If you do a web search for recent news stories on Hobby Lobby, whose long-shot request for a Supreme Court injunction against the HHS contraception mandate was denied last week, you will get thousands of hits. Virtually every establishment media outlet has posted at least one story on that decision, and most offer several for the edification of their readers.

Now, using precisely the same parameters, do a search for recent stories on Wheaton College. You will get fewer than a dozen results relating to the December 18 decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule a lower court dismissal of Wheaton’s lawsuit against the government pursuant to the HHS mandate. You will find a similar paucity of stories about December rulings against the government in suits brought by the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Korte & Luitjohan Contractors, and American Pulverizer, Inc.

The irony here is that Justice Sotomayor’s Hobby Lobby opinion was utterly predictable and, in the long run, probably far less significant than any of the other four decisions. The Wheaton College ruling was not merely a rebuke for the lower court, which naively dismissed the lawsuit last August based on a non-binding government promise “to revise the mandate to accommodate some religious institutions before it goes into effect,” it demolished an argument that the Justice Department has been making in all the anti-mandate lawsuits.

The Obama administration has been arguing, in the many lawsuits it is fighting over the HHS mandate, that the plaintiffs have no standing to sue because they have not yet been injured by the contraception rule, and that HHS apparatchiks are revising it to make it fairer. But federal judges are increasingly reluctant to accept that line of reasoning. As U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan phrased it in his decision involving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, “There is no ‘Trust us, changes are coming’ clause in the Constitution.”

The most recent victory against HHS and its egregious anti-conscience mandate came last Friday, when the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction preventing the government from enforcing the mandate against an Illinois company called Korte & Luitjohan Contractors. And it delivers a potentially deadly blow to the administration’s most pernicious argument — that secular, for‐profit employers are not entitled to the same First Amendment protections enjoyed by strictly religious institutions like churches.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which represents Korte & Luitjohan Contractors, also represents a company called American Pulverizer. Upon securing a similar injunction for that company’s owners on December 20, ACLJ issued a statement that neatly sums up the effect of the HHS edict: “By January 1, 2013, at the latest, Paul and Henry Griesedieck face a stark and unavoidable choice: abandon their beliefs in order to stay in business, or abandon their businesses in order to stay true to their beliefs.”

The ACLJ isn’t the only public interest law firm fighting the HHS mandate. Another leader is the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented Wheaton College in its recent victory. The Becket Fund, a law firm “dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions—from Anglicans to Zoroastrians,” also represents Hobby Lobby. But, despite media insinuations to the contrary, this is no group of fundamentalist lightweights. The Becket Fund was behind the landmark 9-0 Supreme Court victory in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC.

And, unlike most of the media, Becket’s general counsel puts the Sotomayor opinion in perspective: “The Supreme Court merely decided not to get involved in the case at this time. It left open the possibility of review after their appeal is completed in the Tenth Circuit.” So, why have the “news” media made such a big deal of the Hobby Lobby ruling while virtually ignoring the other December decisions? The answer is obvious. That the Obama Justice Department batted one-for-five in December is not to be advertized.

In their ongoing effort to emulate Pravda, the media are doing their best to prop up Obama administration propaganda. Just as they exaggerated anything resembling good news about the economy during the run-up to the recent election, they are now echoing the administration’s talking points on Obamacare and the HHS mandate. The party line on the “Affordable Care Act” is that it has survived all significant legal challenges and full implementation is inevitable. Stories that don’t fit that line don’t get past the editor.

Thus, we get thousands of stories about the Sotomayor opinion with headlines that suggest it constitutes the demise of all serious challenges to the HHS mandate. Meanwhile, we see and hear almost nothing about 80 percent of the rulings handed down by federal courts during the same month on the same issue. But the lawsuits continue to plod forward. Moreover, the HHS mandate is by no means the only provision of Obamacare still being litigated. And the utterly corrupt MSM does not get the final word on any of these lawsuits. Thank God.

About the Author

David Catron is a health care revenue cycle expert who has spent more than twenty years working for and consulting with hospitals and medical practices. He has an MBA from the University of Georgia and blogs at Health Care BS.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (55) |

chuck| 12.31.12 @ 8:06AM

FREE TLP!

Job| 12.31.12 @ 2:53PM

agreed...assuming he is in the stocks. read this site for 2 years before posting a comment and TLP was as much a "must read" as any of these columnists.

Goldwater Girl| 12.31.12 @ 3:33PM

actually, only rarely did the article prompt a comment. It was the comment section that drove the discussion. TLP was unafraid and unapologetic.

Bob K| 1.1.13 @ 5:56PM

I subscribe to this magazine. I want to know what the writers are thinking so I read them. TLP may be a must read for you but he never was for me. I usually, but not always, ignored him.

Aristocat| 1.2.13 @ 4:33AM

Well done...

Von Mises Jr| 12.31.12 @ 8:52AM

The news is even far worse. Only 15 States have agreed to set up ObamaCare Exchanges. Twenty-two and counting have said "hell no" and I think that that number is now a few higher. The remainder seems agreeable to set up the Exchanges if and only if the Federal Government ponies up the cash.
Moreover, unless the States expand Medicaid to 138% of the poverty line, no one without insurance in the State will get insurance. Rick Scott wrote here months ago that it would cost Florida $2B per year. That would mean $2B more in property taxes on his citizens.
We are seeing the Governors pull an Andrew Jackson. When Justice Marshall ruled on the Cherokee Indian Case, Jackson said "John Marshall has made his ruling, now let him enforce it."

c. j. acworth| 12.31.12 @ 11:44AM

And it is also the case that the Feds, never dreaming that anyone could possibly object to their bullying, made no plans to set up exchanges if the States refused. Now they are scrambleing to come up with something, which will certianly end up being an even bigger disaster.

JP| 12.31.12 @ 12:17PM

"Moreover, unless the States expand Medicaid to 138% of the poverty line, no one without insurance in the State will get insurance."

I've been telling this to people for almost year, as everyone seems to think that the uninsured will be getting free health insurance (or nearly free insurance). Wait until the poor see the new ObamaCare health premiums and the size of out-of-pocket expenses. And this is assuming all 50 states will be hosting the health insurance premiums.

Even wobbly RINO govenors have realized that ObamaCare is simply an unsustainable boondoggle that cannot possibly work as written.

Von Mises Jr| 12.31.12 @ 12:35PM

c.j. - The federal government does not have the funding approved to pay for the Exchanges and would have to have it allocated by a Republican House unless he simply declares himself a dictator.

JP - The Medicaid funding comes mostly from DC for the first few years, but by 2017 it is an unfunded liability that the states must absorb totally. The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons estimated that in New Jersey the Medicaid Expansion would cost $5B per year. With a $33B Budget, that is a 15% increase in the Budget, and with seniors enjoying a freeze on property taxes, everyone else's property tax in the state would need to be increased by about twenty percent. New Jersey and New York already have among the highest property taxes in the country with an average of about $10-12K per home.

Happy New Year, my friends. Is TLP still in "prolonged detention" for "thought crimes?"

Aristocat| 1.2.13 @ 4:35AM

Who cares?
What I want to know is, what is the rationale for Obamacare? We already have Medicaid which covers those unable to afford health insurance in the private market....So what is this all about?

Russel| 12.31.12 @ 12:52PM

Being a Republic may be our only saving grace from the federal government opression . As an astute scholar postulated : the fed offers highway dollars in return for sates co-operation in whatever . Unless they get state co-operation , they get no $$ . The state can simply refuse to send them tax dollars , which ends up SAVING the state money . States can refuse to co-operate in all sorts of federal mandates . So whaddaya gonna do , feds , send in the military ? .

Appleby| 12.31.12 @ 8:54AM

Nuts to TLP -- a man who repeatedly urged me to kill myself because I did not support his choice for President of the United States. Such constant harping on the sensibilities of someone less determined than I am could have led to someone's untimely death. Let him repent and be saved before he actually does cause someone's death.

Oh, and kudos to Hobby Lobby and all who continue to place our religious beliefs above Obama's desire to take advantage of what he though Satan promised him at the top of that mountain. (See Luke 4.)

SUBVET| 12.31.12 @ 11:22AM

Applebag.........for someone who quotes the Bible as much as you what does the good Book say about your stated "hate" for mormons.

May I suggest you read Matthew 6:14-15 regarding TLP.

I await your response....................

Boar Hunter| 12.31.12 @ 1:29PM

SUBVET, It seems you possess the same level of manliness as TLP. That is to say none. Hopefully you will someday find a worthy mentor, as your father failed you in that regard.

If one is unavailable to you, why not try educate yourself as to the expected conduct of a man by reading?

Although I expect no more from you than to continue to call old women names from the anonymous safety of your keyboard, maybe you could quit acting like one of these metrosexual crybabies on the liberal side of things and convince people to side with you on the merit of your reasoned argument?

As to the church of Moron, may I suggest you read Revelations 22 verse 18. A friend of mine, who is an elder in the Moron church was unable to reconcile it, I doubt you can. Oh well, it's up to each man to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling. I hope you can work out yours. Best of luck finding it with that whole mormon thingy.

Job| 12.31.12 @ 3:03PM

TLP uses his real name. many here utilize the anonymous safety of a keyboard. who's the man in that case?

Boar Hunter| 12.31.12 @ 5:30PM

Dear Job,

So your argument is that despite posting anything that pops into his mind, regardless of how ill mannered, offensive or profane. TLP is somehow a "man" because he uses his own name? Good one.

If it seems manly to you to call old women names, I would suggest that you have a peculiar idea of manliness.

Job| 12.31.12 @ 6:41PM

well hate to be a boar but show me the money bitch and i 'm not regering to an old woman here...;)

Job| 12.31.12 @ 6:42PM

regering/ referring solly

Job| 12.31.12 @ 6:44PM

in other words what your name little girl???

Job| 12.31.12 @ 8:15PM

what/what's

Job| 12.31.12 @ 6:56PM

TLP's voice needs to be heard and if you don't realize this you don't have a clue.

SUBVET| 1.1.13 @ 11:23AM

Hunter.............your a Boar among other things.

Salvation no worries here..........

Stevet| 1.1.13 @ 10:19AM

Do you realize that your challenge to Applyby admits that mormonism is a transgression, based on Matthew 6:14-15? I didn't think so

Hardcard| 12.31.12 @ 10:03AM

The "Mushroom Treatment" keep'em in the dark and feed'em shyt, that"s the ticket. PS: Censorship is a part of it also!! How about that applelady (TLP) is gone but not forgotten.

Kwan| 12.31.12 @ 11:22AM

Of course this is the correct course of action when dealing with wannabe tyrants. It sends the correct message to the Maoist in the White House that resistance is not futile and we will not be assimilated. Obama and the left no doubt believe that his reelection gives them the green light to turn the country into Zimbabwe, but if you look at the election results 60.46 million for Obama 57.65 million for Romney a difference of 2.81 million votes or 2.38% of the total votes cast, that is not exactly a majority of the country declaring go ahead Obama and turn our Constitutional Republic into a mud-hut infested third world basket-case.

Jack London| 12.31.12 @ 11:29AM

This has nothing to do with religious freedom but a vindictive attempt to ignore women's health. It's only coming from the extreme right - as this Republican pro-lifer says, it's also counter-intuiticve if we want to cut abortions. She notes Bobby Jindal is proposing the pill be made over the counter, but that may not happen because the pill is a powerful drug that needs physician prescribing.

She writes:

"Maintaining a federal role in contraceptive care for low-income women is a far more moral, empathetic and fiscally responsible approach to the problem of unwanted pregnancies than simply condemning abortion — notwithstanding conservative principles of personal responsibility and limited government. If every woman who wanted reliable contraceptive care got it, irrespective of income, we should expect that abortion services would substantially decrease. This would not only reduce government spending on Medicaid — a dollar spent on contraceptive care is associated with a $2 to $6 reduction in health care costs — but, more important, avert the tragedy and anguish involved in abortion. And it would empower women to decide for themselves when they want to have children, advance their education or pursue career opportunities."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12.....ml?hp&_r=0

Tom Kyba| 12.31.12 @ 11:49AM

Why is is that every time you post, I hear "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" in the background?

Jack London| 12.31.12 @ 12:01PM

Why don't you take it up with Juleanna Glover, Tom - here's her bio:

http://www.ashcroftgroupllc.co.....na-glover/

I doubt we'd see anything left to make a puff with after she's finished with you.

JP| 12.31.12 @ 12:50PM

And boob jobs also concern women's health. But not on my dime. The use of Birth Control is a choice, and in 98% of its usage it is a choice of convienence. The birth rate in this nation only met the minimum of 2.1 births/female 8 of the last 40 years. And that was primairily due to Hispanics. There isn't a problem of too many low income single mothers, for even they are having fewer than 2 children.

By the way, a woman can buy generic birth control for about $10/month. It is niether expensive or hard to obtain. Do you have any other strawmen?

Jack London| 12.31.12 @ 1:24PM

You cannot get the contraceptive pill without a doctor consult and prescription. Likewise you cannot get a long-acting implant done. As I said to Tom, take this up with Republican women such as Juleanna Glover – I'll lay you a big bet you will not survive. Reproductive health is part of health whether you like it or not.

George S| 12.31.12 @ 1:39PM

Does the doctor work for free? Do the people who make the contraceptives work for free? Just so they can be available for free?

Without bandaids and iodine, a simple cut can turn into a staph infection. Without aspirin, blood clots can be fatal and heart attacks may not be arrested in time. Does that mean they all have to be free?

What is free is Just Say No to sex. Problem solved and we do not then need the federal government meddling around.

Jack London| 12.31.12 @ 1:59PM

No George - not free, but you do understand the concept of insurance and co-pays. This is how we pay for healthcare here.

Goldwater Girl| 12.31.12 @ 3:37PM

What's free, is keeping your legs closed, if you can't come up with $10/month for BC pills. Is that what they mean by a woman's right to choose?

Quartermaster| 12.31.12 @ 6:46PM

Contraception is *not* health care. Contraception consists of a drug that prevents the reproductive system from function int its proper, i.e. healthy, manner. In other words, it subverts health.

JP| 12.31.12 @ 3:07PM

College co-eds go to the campus clinic and get the perscription for $35. Amost every rural and urban neighborhood have public clinics where they give out free exams. Again, you're going to have a hard time convincing me that contraception is a "problem" in this country. With half of women 18-35 choosing to go childless, while the remainder have 2 or fewer children, birth control isn't a problem. As a matter of fact, we are a nation with too few children.

Goldwater Girl| 12.31.12 @ 3:36PM

but I thought this was the divine purpose of planned parenthood?

spike59| 12.31.12 @ 12:53PM

jackie, the bottom line is, the Feds you idolize, worship, and obey unquestioningly on your knees do NOT have the right under our Constitution to force anyone to violate their deeply-held religious beliefs-look up the Free Exercise Clause in the First Amendment, moron

George S| 12.31.12 @ 1:34PM

So essentially, Jack, your thinking is that if a woman chooses to have sex then that becomes public policy and we should not argue about who is going to pay for the contraception.

Are we 'ignoring' women's health by saying buy your own damn contraceptives? Or, if she cannot afford it, how about abstaining from sexual activity?

I know, neanderthal -- you cannot expect a woman to abstain from sex, they are going to do it anyway. With that logic, why ban guns if people are going to use them anyway?

Jack London| 12.31.12 @ 2:00PM

Take it up with Juleanna Glover, George. Also, here's a challenge for you - go to a drug store and see if you can buy the pill.

Warrior| 12.31.12 @ 2:23PM

If you are looking to buy a contraceptive, there are several over the counter available without prescription products. If you prefer to use the pill, then you will need a prescription. If you would like to drive a car to the drug store, you will need a license and in most every state, auto insurance. The doctor will require you to pay for any needed examination and his prescription. What's your point? Should we remove the license and insurance requirements for autos since it impedes a woman's ability to get contraceptives? Then the next logical step would be that gas for the auto must be free, oil changes and repairs then become a medical necessity. Should we keep going?

Pecos Pete| 12.31.12 @ 2:33PM

Warrior: Your points are correct; but, Jack is a liberal with no thought processes other than what feels good to him/her/it. He can not respond with logic, only feelings.

BBT!

Jack London| 12.31.12 @ 2:52PM

You people can't stop changing the subject. When it's guns, you want to talk about autos. Now healthcare and what do we get? Cars again.

The issue can't be any clearer: the current administration has determined rightly that universal access to contraception and the consultations required throughout a woman's childbearing years is a huge gain to society and to low income women in particular.

You may hate that but you lost and as Juleanna Glover writes about not defunding Title X you cannot ever roll back these advantages for women and society.

If it makes you feel a bit better the elimination of co-pay on the pill only applies to cheap generics. And you seem to forget that women are paying into insurance plans - do women really count for nothing?

JP| 12.31.12 @ 3:12PM

In a nation that is rapidly aging your hero Juleann Glover sounds more and more ridiculous. She seems blissfully unaware that our birth rate and our desire for a huge entitlement state are sending us on a 1 way ticket to financial ruin.

Quartermaster| 12.31.12 @ 6:50PM

First, the country lost, not just the GOP. Second, contraception is *not* health care as it prevents the healthy and proper function of a bodily system. Third, it is self evident that argument by analogy utterly escapes you. Frankly, it would be better for you to crawl back under your rock and think about what you are saying rather than make a fool of yourself by calling others fools for pointing out your idiocy.

philippic| 1.1.13 @ 11:19PM

Yawn.

"Huge gain to society"

because you can empirically prove this over the long run (including un- intended consequences)

because you have a rock solid moral case

because "advantages" have such a solid semantic foundation

NOT

oh the beauty of utilitarianism.......it may in the end be totally vapid when it comes to its moral content....but who cares?!!!!

of course.....sauce for the goose....and all that sort of cyclical stuff.

JP| 12.31.12 @ 3:09PM

With a prescription (which is provided free for those women who earn 138% of the poverty limit) a woman can get a month of free pills (generic brand) for $10 (CVS, Walgreens).

Stan Redmond| 12.31.12 @ 3:17PM

Last time I checked a box of rubbers is 5 or 6 bucks for 12. Even cheaper at Costco. And for the very thrifty a bottle of aspirin with 100 tablets is only $1 at Dollar Tree.

What is it with liberals that demand taxpayers and now insurance carriers pay for the sex life of women? We've heard for decades we, as a people, have no business what goes on behind closed doors (or abortion clinics) but we have to pay for what goes on behind those closed doors. Sex is not a health issue because you don't have to have sex.

philippic| 1.1.13 @ 11:24PM

back off Stan.

don't you understand the Santa Clause principle?

good thing contraceptives such as the pill have no long-term negative health consequences! after all, we know Mr London would never adopt an advocacy position without assessing the "detractors" against the "advantages". he's a swell guy who really, really cares about women!!!

Stevet| 1.1.13 @ 10:29AM

Nothing to do with religous freedom? After the Cocoa Puffs, pass the Grape Nuts.

Goldwater Girl| 12.31.12 @ 12:45PM

Wait until 2014, when employers start seeing the cost of the insurance industry fee, or the reinsurance charge added to their group health plans. I have one client that will be required to pay an additional 1 million dollars for this BS. It was my opinion from the beginning, that ACA was designed to destroy the health insurance companies, and they are on a path towards that goal. This is more redistribution from R-in-chief! FREE TLP! Better yet, hire him to write articles!

CJW| 12.31.12 @ 1:24PM

Goldwater Girl
Happy New Year and free TLP

Stan Redmond| 12.31.12 @ 3:22PM

How dare Hobby Lobby cling bitterly to outdated and obsolete Judeo Christian principles. Don't they know Obama is "kind of a God" and a "lightworker?" Monotheism and faith in Christ just can't compete with a real live rock-star "lord and saviour" like Obama.

Marc Jeric| 12.31.12 @ 11:37PM

I have found a way to become a millionaire in my old age. I will give you a $1,000 for every miss I make when guessing La Sotomayor's decision ( or Kagan's or Ginzbeg's) if you would give me $10 for everyone of her decisions I guess right. You see - I know communists intimately due to the fact my father spent some years in their Gulag, and I had to escape from that communist hell when I was 24.

Job| 1.1.13 @ 1:35PM

adroit comment MJ yet i like Putin more than some of our commie sympathizers. what do you think about him?

Brian Richard Allen | 1.4.13 @ 2:16PM

Thank you, Sir.

Well said!

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