ObamaCare Victory: 1st Catholic University Drops Student Health Insurance

If Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio did not drop its $600 per year student health insurance plan when it expires this coming August, they would have to double the cost of the policy to $1,200 next year, and triple it to $1,800 the year after that.

Thank you, Mr. Obama. "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan." Isn't that what you promised?

And thank you to Ms. Sebelius, Ms. Fluke, and the Bradley University student who told Mitt Romney, "You're all for like 'yay freedom and all this stuff and yay pursuit of happiness.' You know what would make me happy? Free birth control."

Franciscan University leaders point out that to mandate that their students pay exorbitant health insurance costs would be immoral in itself, not to mention the immorality of teaching one thing in the classroom (the sacredness of life) and doing another (purchasing contraception and abortion-inducing drugs for students).

Obviously, as Investors Business Daily reminds us:

It's the first shoe to drop in what will be a cascade of such decisions. Franciscan University was able to drop its coverage, but as the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops has warned, other institutions and charities may be forced to close, sell off their assets or turn them over to secular operators in the wake of ObamaCare's unacceptable mandates and costs.

Teresa, a Franciscan University alum, published the University's new policy:

Campus Health Insurance Policy

The Obama Administration has mandated that all health insurance plans must cover “women’s health services” including contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing medications as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Up to this time, Franciscan University has specifically excluded these services and products from its student health insurance policy, and we will not participate in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life.

Additionally, the PPACA increased the mandated maximum coverage amount for student policies to $100,000 for the 2012-13 school year, which would effectively double your premium cost for the policy in fall 2012, with the expectation of further increases in the future.

Due to these changes in regulation by the federal government, beginning with the 2012-13 school year, the University 1) will no longer require that all full-time undergraduate students carry health insurance, 2) will no longer offer a student health insurance plan, and 3) will no longer bill those not covered under a parent/guardian plan or personal plan for student health insurance. The current student health insurance plan will expire on August 15, 2012.

We encourage you to decide how you are going to provide for accidents or illnesses requiring visits to physicians, health clinics, or the hospital emergency room while you are a student here. As always, our Health Center on campus will be staffed by a certified nurse practitioner Monday – Friday during normal business hours. No insurance is necessary to receive basic health-related services at the Health Center, and the visits cost only $5 at the time of service. However, if you are referred off campus for further lab testing, physician specialists, X-rays, etc., you will be responsible to pay for those services.

As Theresa points out, the idea is to force everyone into more Gov't "care."

Yeah, and we all feel so cared for. Particularly those of us who don't subscribe to Obama's version of "freedom." 
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