Would You Give Up Health Insurance All Together to Uphold Your Religious Beliefs?
- Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:01pm by
Liz Klimas
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Stacy Molai (Photo: FOCUS)
Stacy Molai, a Catholic missionary, feels so strongly that the HHS contraceptives mandate would cause her to violate her religious beliefs that she is willing to put her own health on the line to uphold what she feels is right.
With similar sentiments to that of a hunger strike, Molai told The Revered Review that she would opt out of receiving health care if the mandate held. Since Molai suffers from Crohn’s disease, such a move away from health insurance could lead to her own financial demise and even result in a life-threatening situation.
The Revered Review reports that Molai, 31, was diagnosed with Crohn’s at 13, takes several medications a day and had four surgeries just last month. But Molai said she is willing to risk it all if the mandate, which she believes violates religious freedom, is not overturned:
The Revered Review asked: “So you are willing to risk your health, and possibly your life, and face financial ruin? And, if the HHS mandate is not overturned, you are willing to face even more fines, and whatever consequences the government will impose on those who are uninsured?”
“I am,” she responded.
Molai, an RN who works for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), said it could be “life-threatening“ for her to go without health coverage but she said she ”cannot go against [her] conscience“ in being ”forced to pay for those things.” She said she believes the controversy over the mandate is being twisted to seem like it’s against contraception as a whole:
“Many people think the debate is about Catholics trying to prevent contraception,” she said. It is not. “It’s against the Constitution to force us to pay for those things,” she said.
“We are trading an inalienable right for free contraception,” she said.
Molai told The Reverend Review that she hopes her decision to give up insurance, even with the risks it poses to her health, will show others the serious nature of this topic. FOCUS Director of Communications Jeremy Rivera shared these sentiments:
“FOCUS is proud to have a woman like Stacy among our missionary staff. As her employer, we stand in solidarity with her and her convictions to remain true to her conscience and to exercise her religious liberty in the face of the government’s proposed HHS mandate. Given the reality of Stacy’s serious health issues, her courage should inspire all Catholics and people of faith to reinforce the necessity to overturn this unjust regulation.”
Earlier this month, Catholic News Agency reported Molai’s story and stated she is one of two private citizens to join seven states and several organizations in a lawsuit against the mandate. CNA also states that Molai’s decision to not take health insurance coverage would “violate the ‘individual mandate’ that requires every individual to have insurance under the new health care law, which could result in her being jailed.”
Molai’s conviction poses an interesting question though: If you believed the mandate violated your religious beliefs, would you give up health coverage completely in order to uphold them?
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Comments (112)
vaman
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:46pmWait until that crohns starts kicking in honey, you’ll want that insurance back fast when you see the hospital bill for some of those surgeries. Same goes for anyone else. Your convictions get you nowhere when you or a loved one need to visit a hospital for a major reason. Let’s say a heart attack. No insurance…better hope god gives you a bucket of money or you could owe that hospital upwards of a $100,000. Or they could turn you away. If you don’t pay, you could lose your home and everything tangible you own or declare bankruptcy and be a dead beat. More of the same rational thinking from some of the Blazers.
Report Post »burnteye86
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:52pm..for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
Report Post »mrunner
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:54pmAt some point in time you will come to realize that there are things more important than health and material things. We all suffer and we all die- some will suffer and die with our honor and values intact, despite the best efforts of those who want to rule our lives.
Report Post »sonseeker
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 5:14pmyou are wrong, I am willing to sacrifice myself to make this point!
Report Post »Blackjacx1
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 5:19pmSo because you think she’s stupid, it’s ok to try and take away her (and our) rights? We‘ll see who’s crying when/if these laws and rules stand because it could be just as easily turned on you, and your belief that you should have, for example, a prostate exam which could be deemed elective if you don’t meet their standard criteria.
Report Post »This is a slippery slope and dupes and useful idiots are the grease that the administration is using.
Cavallo
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 5:21pmI think she is more concerned with her spiritual health and well being rather than her physical health.
Report Post »Barb
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 5:24pmVAMAN-really, seriously, people have GIVEN THEIR LIVES for freedom!!!!! And that is what this is all about. I support her courage and conviction because, after all, it is people with the courage of their conviction who has kept us free up until now. Just so you know, I am not catholic, I dont oppose birth control but I recognize this for the tyranny that it is!!! By the time you realize what is really happening here, it will be too late……
Report Post »SoNick
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 5:36pm@burnteye86
Report Post »and how exactly does the loss of a body (and the soul that goes with it) profit the world?
professorlightheart
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 5:46pm. . . thanks to this evil regime we will all have to eventually suffer for our convictions. . . not because we want to, but because this vile government is forcing good men and women to take their stand for what they believe in. It has always been the government against the people, but never before has the American Government been so blatantly adversarial, dictatorial and punitive. They lie, cheat and steal to accomplish their crushing agenda which glorifies dissidents, empowers favored races, promotes sexual perversion and worships the anti-religious. This month they come for us who hold religious convictions. This week they come for those who use gasoline. Today they come for our homes. Tomorrow they will come for you. Yes, the cost of freedom is very high. How sad that you sound like such a chinless and weak capitulator. Perhaps you will rise up and fight when they come for you. I pray. Otherwise, what you will barter as you cower and cringe in fear of losing your precious commodities will be your self esteem and your soul. Just ask those wiz kids who thought their fellow countrymen were stupid to resist the demands of the Nazis and Communists only to later commit suicide once they realized what they had allowed themselves to be a part of.
Report Post »unworthy
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 6:46pmIf you cannot hold true to your own convictions, how can you be trusted? Instead you become a sell out. This life on earth is so fleeting as just a second in the scope of eternity, yet how you live your life here in exile, will determine how and where you will spend eternity. Your soul is the only thing that matters, your body and your possesions will become dust.
Report Post »Komponist-ZAH
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 6:46pm“Or they could turn you away.”
If you were in an actual life-threatening situation by law they could not. Besides which, most hospitals have aid programs for those who don‘t have insurance and can’t pay.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 7:01pmThat hospital stay that you are saying could cost 100k would not cost what it does now if we weren’t all forced or coerced into receiving healthcare. The services do not justify the cost and they only reason that we have employers providing healthcare at all is because of a socialist president in the 1930‘s and 40’s who froze employee pay forcing employers to raise their fringe benefits like health insurance and retirement policies so that they could draw in good laborers.
The facts are with me on this. The reason why healthcare costs so much is because we have a middleman milking the lifeblood from us and the medical industry. The medical professionals have to severely overcharge because everything they charge is haggled over until it is half of what it was and this perpetual over charging has led to increased prices overall. Especially for those who do not have the bargaining power of blue cross or aetna. I wish that they would do away with health insurance regulations altogether. That way I could get a decent low-cost insurance plan that only covered traumatic injury and hospital stays. I have no problem providing for my own routine medical care like annuals, screenings, or doctor visits. I don’t need some third party to take care of what should be my responsibility and my direct cost.
Report Post »ahull15
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 12:12am@ vaman
Report Post »Yeah and wait until your 75 year old loved one gets turned away because they are deemed too old to receive treatment under Obamacare
juge
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 8:48amyou have just pointed out a BIG problem. A complete lack of principles! America cannot survive if everyone thinks like you do. I am with Molai on this one.
Report Post »FoxholeAtheist
Posted on March 22, 2012 at 10:42amI say “good riddance” to her and all the other religious idiots who want to do this. If they want to kill themselves that’s fine with me. She can pray the disease away and see how that goes for her.
Report Post »hauschild
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:39pmI would give up health insurance just to prove a point; that you don’t need it. I’m 43 and go to the doctor about once every 5 years, mainly because I was brought up in a non-candy-ass environment. I was taught to take care of myself and learned to stay fit at a young age, so that it wasn’t impossible to do by the time I am the age I currently am.
I’m not saying everybody is like me, but if I am like I am, there must be more out like me out there. The entire health insurance need was blown way out of proportion and now it has been abused beyond repair – and now the brain-dead Marxists are going to ease it back, but not in a good way, or the way it should be done. All you have to do is teach kids to be tough and take care of themselves, which is over half the battle. The other half is good genes.
Report Post »CptStubbing
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 5:27pmDon’t worry about good genes; if Obama is re-elected, eugenics will soon follow.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 7:07pm@ capt, outright eugenics won’t come to my town without alot of brass ejecting from my rifle at the people responsible. But you have to wonder why hospitals take blood samples from every newborn and send it to a gov’t facility for testing. I think we are already seeing a soft form of eugenics in this nation. Home birth is looked down upon and hospitals are now denying parents their rights as was seen the other day with one of the Kennedy’s. I might disagree with the Kennedy’s on nearly every subject in the book, but if he and his wife want to take their newborn outside for fresh air and sun, then the hospital can be damned. The nurse got what was coming to her, probably less than what she deserved at that.
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:39pmYes, without a second thought.
Report Post »CHRIST is my health-giver, my health-provider, my healer.
HE is enough.
Sol Invictus
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 6:11pmRemind me never to appoint you a first aider – but welcome back to the Blaze Grandma. We’ve missed you. Settle a bet for us – is Itsjustim your son? Get some bandaid in just in case of cuts.
Report Post »Windsong
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:36pmHere’s a fact. Hundreds of millions of us have somehow managed to squeak by – even in sickness – without insurance. Millions of us have had a pay as you go system for decades. It’s simple really. You know you need a physical once a year, a prostate or mammogram test every few years, etc. Then, you budget. You go to a few less movies, buy a few less Christmas presents, etc.
Viola! You have health care with the doctor you know and trust. For some reason, Americans have come to expect health care and co-pays. I thank God I haven’t become so dependent on any government system.
The good news? I will continue to have my yearly physicals with my doctor…even if I have to pay with work on his house or foodstuffs. The bad news? You will be at the mercy of an unelected government official,who will decide if your particular medical malady is ‘worthy’ of treating. That decision will be made at a big long conference table somewhere in the White House. The decision will be based on your age, your past medical experiences, your work record (union or non-union) and your political beliefs.
Report Post »Welcome to Russia. I’ll be interested to read the letter you write to your children…the one about how you and your sixties, drug induced utopian dream was worth more to you than the fact that your children and grandchildren will never taste freedom – like the freedom you grew up with.
the wireworker
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:36pmi would to, this whole contraception conversation is just a diversion from the real maladies this virus in the whitehouse is spewing on the American people.
mal·a·dy (ml-d)
Report Post »n. pl. mal·a·dies
1. A disease, a disorder, or an ailment.
2. An unwholesome condition: the malady of discontent
Owt_Raged
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:35pmYep, I won’t compromise my morals or values for any government, and I’m not Catholic. Obama needs to get out of our personal lives and quit making the tax payer support those that won’t support themselves.
Report Post »shogun459
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:29pmQUESTION
How can something be for the ‘Good of the State’,
Report Post »if it harms even one innocent ‘Member of the State’?
lukerw
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 5:12pmThe people are a Predator Species… and sometimes harm themselves or others; the State is organization and direction of groups of people by an elite of these people. There is no conflict here… as long as you give up the concept that anyone is Innocent or a Virgin!
Report Post »Free2speakRN
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:26pmYes.
Report Post »BroIgnatius
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:25pmNot only would I give up any health insurance but I actually did it back in the 1990s when Clinton tried to pass the universal health care with an attempt to force Catholic Hospitals to offer contraception and abortion.
My resolve on this was tested. While I had no insurance I developed a kidney stone. I told God that if the hospital would not treat men because I have no money, that I would return home and suffer until the stone passed, or die if the stone did not pass.
When I walked into the hospital I again made this vow should the hospital turn me away. Fortunately, the hospital did treat me, but I was fully prepared to accept my fate if the hospital refused treatment.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 5:50pmBy law…they cannot refuse you. But they can also give you some really @hitty sevice too…
Report Post »sealwifenyc
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 8:40pmWOW. WOW. WOW. Someone paid for your bill (higher costs for patients, lower pay for physicians, and nurses), Did you think God just made it disappear? The hypocrisy from this statement and line of thinking is outrageous.
Report Post »shogun459
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:24pm“… and now you know,, The REST of the story.”
Report Post »JimL
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:24pmJoan again leads.
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:24pmDamn Straight. I’d give up my life.
Report Post »shogun459
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:23pmYes I would renounce “free” government healthcare for my faith in Jesus.
Report Post »“He who loves his life shall lose it.”
“He who loves the Lord shall gain eternal life.”
Itsjusttim
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:27pmAnd yet, that is what the mouths of Americans have said, while their actions enslave the souls of their children and grandchildren with debt. Therefore how can you love the son in Heaven when you don’t love your son on earth?
Report Post »Countrygirl1362
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:28pmAmen!
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:29pmIt’s because you love the earth even more than your own sons.
Report Post »shogun459
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:33pmAs Israel suffered for the actions of “the builders who rejected the capstone.”
Report Post »So shall America suffer for the actions of our leaders.
Our divine protection is now up to each individuals relationship with God minus that which had been upon America since our founding, “under God”.
Itsjusttim
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:34pmDo you know that if Jesus Christ was born in the U.S tomorrow, all you people would have enslaved him to debt?
Report Post »NHwinter
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:43pmItsjusttim – “all you people”, I assume you mean the Progressives/Liberals.
Report Post »Celeste.Christi
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:20pmYes
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:20pmRight on!
Report Post »shimauma
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:19pmI see a business opportunity for DOCTORS who accept CASH ONLY!!! Heya doctors, wanna know how to get out from under guv’ment thumb??? STOP ACCEPTING INSURANCE!!! only have patients who pay CASH ONLY!!
Report Post »Countrygirl1362
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:30pmThat is what my doctor does and I get wonderful care, but only what I want and can afford.
Report Post »Freedom2Bme
Posted on March 21, 2012 at 7:34amI am pretty sure that part of the insidious Obamacare law makes it illegal for Dr’s to take cash for services. No Freedom left once health care is completely controlled.
Report Post »4areason
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:18pmThank you Stacy, you are representing the perspective of the individuals whose religious convictions are being violated. The public outcry has largely been focused on our Churches, which is wonderful and important, but how about all the faithful business owners and individuals that are being mandated as well? United we stand, divided we fall!
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:15pmWell of course, because one can not love the earth and love the Father.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:22pmWhich reminds me of exactly why I would never call a priest “Father” because there is only one Father, the Father in Heaven.
Report Post »JimL
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:32pmHands open to Christ and His Will?
Report Post »unworthy
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 7:45pmwhat about your earthly Father…what do you call him?
Report Post »JimL
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:15pmFrom what I have gathered (info most be aggressively sought) there is not a medical care without population control for employees to opt into.
Report Post »patriot4ever
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:13pmSince I‘ve never had health insurance and I’m 52 years old…YES! That’s an easy answer. I don‘t want anybody else to pay for it and I can’t afford it myself, so that’s the end of that.
Report Post »WhiteFang
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:34pmPatriot4ever, – “I don‘t want anybody else to pay for it and I can’t afford it myself, so that’s the end of that.”
I’m 67 and in full agreement. Even if you have health insurance, there are no guarantees of having a long life. And we have the right to accept or reject medical treatment we do not want.
Report Post »ChildofJesus
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:12pmI would too if the choice should be given me.
Report Post »Female
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:11pmShe will probably be safer without healthcare and future death panels putting her to sleep. Afterall, they will start cutting costs somewhere, first the babies, then the elderly, and finally those with diagnosed diseases.
Report Post »JimL
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:17pmBut you and your employer will also be subject to fines– Yes/No?
Report Post »shogun459
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:26pmHA!
Report Post »I wouldn’t be surprised if the “Death Panel” enforcers are Proactive and go door to door.
father_of_10
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:11pmIf you have religious conviction, then stand by your convictions, No one is asking anyone to give up contraception. No one making contraception unavailable. The entire issue is the federal government forcing churches to go against their doctines, ideologies and convictions. This is why we have the 1st Amendment. We are at the point where this administration is openly and actively violating the 1st Amendment and Freedom of Religion.
Fight. Resist.
I hated communists even before they started calling themselves liberals.
Report Post »http://fatherof10.com
JimL
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:19pmcall your current insurer and ask what is covered– it’s more than contraceptives.
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:06pmWhen we begin to talk of compromising the 1st amendment…we are one step closer to a Literal War with the Immoral Communistic Left…they will reap what they have sown, and they will lose.
Report Post »destrecht
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:04pmWow- I applaud you.
Report Post »