Friday, February 10, 2012

No Free Lunch

Prior to prohibition there were saloons where for the price of a beer you could also graze the lunch buffet "free." As economists of the time pointed out, there is no free lunch. The cost of the lunch was simply included in the price of the beer.

Now President Obama has modified his requirement that faith based universities and hospitals provide birth control, sterilization, and abortifacient pills in their employee health care programs. His new stand: the employer doesn't have to pay for these services, instead the insurance company has to pay for them.

Who is he kidding? Does Obama ask us to believe the insurers will provide these services out of profits? Nonsense, insurers will build the cost of such services into the price they charge for the insurance.

The Catholic hospital or university will end up paying for things which they find morally repugnant but it won't be called out as a separate line item. This is a distinction of interest only to accountants, certainly not to God.