Something interesting in the health care bill upon which very little attention has fallen is the clause which allows exemptions from the health insurance requirements for people with opposing religious convictions.
With the inevitable skill and talent our Congress always brings to the table, they designated a list of groups that are allowed to object to the provisions of the bill; what's really great? They refer to a list of designated religious groups that isn't actually in the bill.
- (1) IN GENERAL- The term ‘applicable individual’ means, with respect to any month, an individual other than an individual described in paragraph (2), (3), or (4).
- ‘(2) RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS-
- ‘(A) RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE EXEMPTION- Such term shall not include any individual for any month if such individual has in effect an exemption under section 1311(d)(4)(H) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which certifies that such individual is a member of a recognized religious sect or division thereof described in section 1402(g)(1) and an adherent of established tenets or teachings of such sect or division as described in such section.
The problem here is that Section 1402 stops at (f) and does not then continue to (g,) which poses a problem for anyone looking for the religious exemption, since there's no actual list involved that delineates the people allowed the exclusion.
Great thing we found out THAT was in there (or, rather, wasn't,) before they passed it, right?
Now, in all honesty, I was prepared to launch into an impassioned rant about how it's fine for the Amish to be excluded because they just don't like to pay taxes, but it's somehow not ok for Catholics to be excluded despite the fact that they are morally opposed to abortion, but imagine my surprise when I realized that the bill refers to sections of itself that don't exist - which means that the religious exemption doesn't exist, either.
Indians - I would say Native Americans, but the bill specifically refers to them as Indians - are excluded, though.
(That would be Section 1501(e)(3,) if anyone's curious.)
Nice.
Gotta love the way the government was in such a hurry to pass the bill that they didn't even bother to make sure they actually HAD all the clauses they refer to in it, don't you?
