David Walker on Welfare & Poverty

Let churches provide services with religious exemptions

A: Yes, allow them to do it, but maintain separation of church and state. The latest issue is requiring church-related entities to offer contraceptives. Federal law has always recognized that church organizations are exempt from those types of mandates.

Q: You're referring to the provision in ObamaCare that as of August 2012, all employers, including churches, must provide health insurance which includes contraception?

A: Yes; if people want to work for church and get contraceptives, they won't go to work for a church-affiliated organizations. Even if they do, the economic cost is not that significant. Most churches are self-insured; their outside insurance is typically just catastrophic stop-loss insurance. Obama's so-called "compromise" of the insurer paying for contraception means it's the church paying for it, in effect. That was no compromise at all. But yes, we need to separate church and state.