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Monthly Cost Is Top Concern for Health Insurance Shoppers

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Americans, long used to seeking bargains, look mostly at price when they're shopping for health insurance, a new survey shows. Reported by msnbc.com 17 hours ago.

Dems call for repeal of ObamaCare's 'Cadillac' plan tax

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Nine Democratic senators and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation Thursday to repeal an Obamacare tax on high-cost health insurance plans, adding their weight behind a rare bipartisan effort to change part of the healthcare law. Reported by FOXNews.com 10 hours ago.

Atlantic Information Services, Softheon to Present Complimentary Webinar on Upcoming Open-Enrollment Period for Public Insurance Exchanges

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Softheon founder, chairman and CEO Eugene Sayan will discuss which strategies will be most effective in the upcoming open-enrollment period for public exchanges during a complimentary webinar presented by Softheon, and managed and moderated by Atlantic Information Services.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) September 25, 2015

The third open-enrollment period for public exchanges begins Nov. 1, and hundreds of health plans will participate. In order to have a successful open-enrollment period, plans will have to employ meaningful, forward-thinking outreach, engagement and education strategies. During “Open Enrollment Preview: How Lessons Learned Can Help Insurers and Brokers Win on Exchanges,” an upcoming complimentary webinar presented by tech firm Softheon, Inc., and managed and moderated by health business information publisher Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS), Softheon founder, chairman and CEO Eugene Sayan will discuss tactics that can be employed to drive enrollment and expand health insurance coverage in public insurance exchanges.

In this hour-long Oct. 6 program, participants will get answers to these and other questions:· What tactics can health plans employ to improve member retention and attract new consumers?
· How do demographic characteristics contribute to difficulties in reaching and enrolling consumers on the public exchanges?
· What barriers to enrollment and outreach can carriers expect to face during this year’s open enrollment?
· How can Web brokers assist health plans and federally facilitated exchanges in enrolling new consumers and improving member retention?
· What goal-driven metrics and tools can be used to evaluate outreach and enrollment success?

A concluding Q&A session will offer the chance to pose questions to Mr. Sayan directly.

Visit https://aishealth.com/softheon-100615 for more details and registration information.

About Softheon
Empowering the nation's first state health benefit exchange since 2008, Softheon's vision and strategic direction address health care payer, provider and government agencies' goal of meeting Affordable Care Act milestones. Softheon provides HIX Integration, Direct Enrollment, Premium Billing and Edge Server solutions for insurance carriers of all sizes participating in Federal and State Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) Marketplaces. Softheon's Marketplace Connector Cloud (MC2) has been trusted by health plans, in all 50 states, as an accelerated federal, state and private exchange integration platform. Nearly 10% of all Americans who enrolled in Federal and State Based Marketplaces in 2015 coverage use Softheon MC2 platform for enrollment, premium billing and member services. Softheon MC2 is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution where insurers pay a one-time activation and ongoing PMPM fees for exchange members only, while eliminating most, if not all, risks associated with ACA enrollment compliance and other mandates. Softheon is an authorized web-broker entity and approved by the federal government to offer subsidized health insurance to Americans. To find out more about Softheon, visit http://www.softheon.com.

About AIS
Atlantic Information Services, Inc. (AIS) is a publishing and information company that has been serving the health care industry for more than 25 years. It develops highly targeted news, data and strategic information for managers in hospitals, health plans, medical group practices, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organizations. AIS products include print and electronic newsletters, websites, looseleafs, books, strategic reports, databases, webinars and conferences. Learn more at http://AISHealth.com. Reported by PRWeb 12 hours ago.

Health Insurers Hire Thousands Of Nurses Amid Shift To Value-Based Care

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Health insurance companies are hiring record numbers of nurses as the Affordable Care Act boosts the number of patients with medical coverage and plans look for ways to coordinate care of the newly insured. At the nation’s largest health insurance company, UnitedHealth Group (UNH), more than 7,000 additional nurses have been [...] Reported by Forbes.com 10 hours ago.

Your Money Adviser: How to Manage Increasingly Higher Medical Deductibles

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Despite gains in the number of Americans with health insurance, employers are continuing to shift costs to workers in the form of higher deductibles. Reported by NYTimes.com 9 hours ago.

Your Money Adviser: Insured, but Facing Increasingly Higher Medical Deductibles

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Despite gains in the number of Americans with health insurance, employers are continuing to shift costs to workers in the form of higher deductibles. Reported by NYTimes.com 9 hours ago.

ACA is not the job-killer some predicted

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Only 4% of employers subject to the Affordable Care Act's mandate to offer health insurance said they changed some positions  -More-  Reported by SmartBrief 8 hours ago.

Delta Dental shuffles leadership to manage growth

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Delta Dental of Kansas has altered its leadership team to help the company better manage growth in its life and health insurance subsidiary. CEO Michael Herbert tells me Keith Asplund moved to a newly created position as the company's vice president of product management. In that role, Asplund will oversee Delta's Surency Life & Health subsidiary, which was formed in 2008 to create new service lines and revenue streams. Herbert says growth in Surency led to the change. “It’s a small part of… Reported by bizjournals 6 hours ago.

In Just One Year, 3.7 Million Young Adults Gain Health Insurance Coverage

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In a single year, from 2013-2014, the rate of uninsured young adults, ages 18 to 34, dropped by a staggering 5 percentage points to 17.2 percent down from 22.4 percent. A drop of that significance, in one year, is rarely seen in measuring social or economic change.

So here's a news flash: The Affordable Care Act, the most comprehensive piece of legislation overhauling our nation's health care system, is disproportionately benefiting Millennials.

Newly released data from the U.S. Census Current Population Survey, a sixty thousand person survey, shows us this drop, and in doing so it provides, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of the effects of the health insurance marketplaces that opened October 1, 2013.

We can see that young adults, the group whose participation was crucial for the ACA's success, have seen significant gains in insurance coverage, reinforcing just how important the ACA is to the health and security of Millennials and dismantling the myth the young people don't value health coverage.Key finding: Out of 8 million American adults who gained health coverage in 2014, 46 percent, or 3.7 million, were young adults aged 18 to 34, almost half of the newly covered.

That's significant considering they only make up 30 percent of the population:

Due to U.S. Census changes to the Current Population Survey questions in 2013, we are not able to use this survey to look further back in time. Fortunately, the American Community Survey -- who also released their new numbers last week -- has asked the same questions since 2009, and can be broken down by state. These numbers have a much larger sample size of 3 million.

Based on our analysis, the rate of young adults without insurance declined in every state, but due to the states' varying acceptance of the ACA, that degree of decline across the board varied significantly.

For instance, states that chose not to accept federal funding to expand their Medicaid programs, saw their rate decline by an average of 21 percent, between 2009 and 2014. However, states that chose to expand Medicaid saw their rate of uninsured young adults decline by an average of 34 percent.

States like Kentucky, Oregon, and Vermont cut their rates in half, whereas Virginia, Missouri and Alabama saw theirs decline only by about 15 percent.

Throughout the next year, we will continue drawing attention to those young adults caught in the Medicaid gap: too poor to qualify for tax credits on the marketplace, and not poor enough to qualify for traditional Medicaid.

Young Invincibles will also continue to provide education and enrollment opportunities for the harder to reach young adult populations: young Latinos, young African Americans, young immigrants, young LGBT adults, former foster youth, young adults with limited English proficiency, among others.

Finally, we will continue providing trainings to key partners, so that local leaders have the tools they need to carry this work forward. If past is any indication, and we believe it is, young adults will see even more progress in this year's open enrollment, starting November 1.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 5 hours ago.

Health insurance shift: Workers shoulder more of the costs

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As workers who pay health insurance premiums probably already know, their monthly payments continue to rise. There’s another trend afoot, however, that puts more pressure on the workers to make fiscally responsible health care choices – or, at least, shifts the costs of care increasingly on them. A survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust shows that premiums increased by 4 percent on average this year – a relatively moderate increase. Deductibles,… Reported by bizjournals 5 hours ago.

Growing Consumer Concerns About Drug Prices

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Among health care consumers throughout the United States, there is growing concern about the high and increasing costs of prescription medicines. Those concerns manifest themselves in myriad ways, and relief from these costs has become a top priority for health care consumers. Here are some of the indicators.

In May of this year, Families USA released a survey report showing that more than 1 out of 4 people - with full-year coverage and who had non-group health insurance at the time of the survey - went without needed health care because they could not afford the cost. Among those going without needed care, more than half found that the prescription medicines they needed were unaffordable, and they were unable to fill their prescriptions.

In a Kaiser Family Foundation poll this April, "making sure that high-cost drugs for chronic conditions are affordable for those who need them" ranked as the public's top health care priority among various issues raised in the survey. Seventy-five (75) percent said it should be a top priority for action by national policymakers.

Numerous consumer and research organizations have criticized drug-maker Gilead, the manufacturer of Sovaldi (designed to cure Hepatitis C), for its astronomical price of that drug. Gilead charged $1,000 per pill for a total regimen costing $84,000. As criticism mounted and competitive drugs came to market, the price was ultimately cut almost in half. But many new specialty drugs now in the pipeline are likely to exceed Sovaldi's original price tag.

Turing Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer of Daraprim (which treats severe infections afflicting HIV and cancer patients), recently increased that drug's price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Due to public outrage over this increase, the company has indicated it will reduce the price but still has yet to indicate what the final price will be. There simply is no rationale for this price increase, but it is symptomatic that the sky is the limit in drug profiteering.

Pharmaceutical costs are expected to increase faster than other components of health care spending in the coming years. Those costs will not only have an adverse impact on future insurance premiums, but they are already hitting consumers in the pocketbook. As health care deductibles and co-payments continue to grow, the price rises in prescription drugs have an immediate impact on what consumers need to spend to stay healthy - and, for too many, this makes their medicines unaffordable.

Many consumers are angry, and have good reason to be upset, that the exact same drugs, often manufactured by U.S. companies, are considerably more expensive in our country than they are in other nations. Some, with varying success, therefore sought, and still want, to re-import drugs from other countries, such as Canada.

Perhaps most significantly from an economic standpoint, the profit margins of the drug industry are significantly higher than the profit margins in other parts of the health industry - such as insurance companies and America's hospitals. The average rate of profits for drug companies has been in the middle to high teens for numerous years, while insurers' and hospitals' rates of returns are usually in the lower single digits.

There are many lessons we can learn from other countries that have succeeded in keeping drug prices low. And there are a variety of public proposals receiving increasing attention that no doubt will be, and deserve to be, on the national agenda.

A number of states have stepped in and enacted plans to limit the amount that individuals are required to pay out of pocket for their prescription medicines. This protection for consumers, which is especially important for people with chronic health conditions, should be augmented by other proposals that have a more direct impact on the pharmaceutical industry's pricing practices.

Today, Medicare is prohibited from negotiating prices directly with drug companies, and the industry vigorously opposes lifting this prohibition. Instead, its powerful association (the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, PhRMA) argues that prices should be determined by the competitive marketplace. However, at the same time, many of PhRMA's member companies inappropriately prevent generic competitors from entering the marketplace through legally suspect payoffs to generic companies to delay entry into the market and through bogus attempts to extend expiring patents.

Thus, public bargaining or regulation of prices is often absent, as is meaningful marketplace competition.

PhRMA would have the public believe that this absence of price restraints makes sense because its companies are continuing to undertake research and development on new medical breakthroughs. Unfortunately, expenditures for marketing and advertising far exceed spending on research and development among most of PhRMA's members.

It is time for policymakers to provide leadership on this growing concern about drug prices. Given the public's interest in this, the imperative for effective action will soon make needed policy changes inevitable.

Ron Pollack is the founding executive director of Families USA, the national organization for health care consumers.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 4 hours ago.

Obama Promised Healthcare Premiums Would Fall $2,500 Per Family; They Have Climbed $4,865

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Obama Promised Healthcare Premiums Would Fall $2,500 Per Family; They Have Climbed $4,865 Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

*How’s that Obamacare working out for you? That’s what I thought.*

Considering that pretty much every single thing Obama promised when he was running for President turned out to be an outright lie, we shouldn’t be surprised this is also the case when it comes to his so-called “signature achievement.” Before getting into the meat of this post, let’s take a trip down memory lane and watch a video clip of Obama on the 2008 campaign trail.

As you can see, he didn’t just say it once or twice. He said it over, and over and over again. Now here’s what actually happened.

From Investors Business Daily:



Employer-based health insurance premiums climbed 4.2% this year for family plans, according to an annual Kaiser Family Foundation report. That’s up from 3% the year before.

 

*Since 2008, average family premiums have climbed a total of $4,865.*

 

The White House cheered the news, saying it was a sign of continued slow growth in premium costs.

 

“We will start,” Obama said back in 2008, “by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.”

 

And Obama wasn’t talking about government subsidized insurance or expanding Medicaid or anything like that. He specifically focused on employer provided health care.

 

*For “people who already have insurance, and the employers who are providing it,” he said at one campaign event, “we will work to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family.”*



“We screwed some folks.”

*  *  *

For related articles, see:

Yep, You Guessed It – Obamacare Website Funneling Private Consumer Info to Private Companies

Video of the Day – Obamacare Architect Credits “Lack of Transparency” and “Stupidity of the American People” for Passage of Healthcare Law

ObamaFraud: GAO Study Finds Almost All Fake Applicants are Approved for Subsidized ObamaCare

Serfs Up – Average Healthcare Premiums Have Soared 39%-56% Post Obamacare

Computer Security Expert Claims he Hacked the ObamaCare Website in 4 Minutes Reported by Zero Hedge 4 hours ago.

Top Obamacare health insurance plan in Onondaga County going bust

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Reported by syracuse.com 2 hours ago.

Cambia creates new executive position to drive innovation

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Jared Short, who has led Cambia Health Solution’s Health Insurance Services, has been promoted to chief operating officer, a new position at the parent company. In his new role, Short will be responsible for consumer-focused innovation and performance across Cambia’s family of companies. He will continue to report directly to President and CEO Mark Ganz, Cambia announced. “In his expanded role, Jared will focus on accelerating our transformation from a traditional health plan to a consumer-centric… Reported by bizjournals 47 minutes ago.

Health insurer Health Republic will stop writing policies

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Health Republic, the federally backed nonprofit health insurer with the second highest percentage of individual and family enrollees on the state's health insurance exchange, will no longer be writing insurance policies, the state announced Friday afternoon. Reported by Newsday 1 day ago.

Pope Francis to New York City: Jesus still walks our streets. Tell everyone!

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New York City, N.Y., Sep 25, 2015 / 04:49 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis on Friday had a brief, but urgent, reminder for the Catholics of New York City. They must proclaim the joy of God and remember to care for all those who go unnoticed in their metropolis, because they have seen the “great light” of Jesus Christ.

“Knowing that Jesus still walks our streets, that he is part of the lives of his people, that he is involved with us in one vast history of salvation, fills us with hope,” the Pope said during his homily at Mass at Madison Square Garden Sept. 25.

“God is living in our cities. The Church is living in our cities, and she wants to be like yeast in the dough. She wants to relate to everyone, to stand at everyone’s side, as she proclaims the marvels of the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the Prince of Peace,” he added.

His homily, delivered in Spanish, drew from the prophet Isaiah’s declaration: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

“We ourselves are witnesses of that light,” the Pope continued. “God’s faithful people can see, discern and contemplate his living presence in the midst of life, in the midst of the city.”

The Pope reflected on the multicultural nature of large, modern cities, with such “hidden riches” as diverse cultures, traditions, languages, and cuisine.

“But big cities also conceal the faces of all those people who don’t appear to belong, or are second-class citizens,” he said. There are people who go unnoticed, like foreigners, children without education, those without health insurance, the homeless, and the forgotten elderly.

“These people stand at the edges of our great avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity. They become part of an urban landscape which is more and more taken for granted, in our eyes, and especially in our hearts,” he said.

http://catholicnewsagency.tumblr.com/post/129875048103/popeinnyc-popeinus-photo-credit-alan Pope Francis said that when people in the Gospels asked Christ “what must we do?” the first thing he did was “to propose, to encourage, to motivate.”

“He keeps telling his disciples to go, to go out. He urges them to go out and meet others where they really are, not where we think they should be. Go out, again and again, go out without fear, without hesitation. Go out and proclaim this joy which is for all the people,” the Roman Pontiff encouraged the congregation of tens of thousands.

“Go out to others and share the good news that God, our Father, walks at our side. He frees us from anonymity, from a life of emptiness and selfishness, and brings us to the school of encounter. He removes us from the fray of competition and self-absorption, and he opens before us the path of peace.”

This peace, he said, is “born of accepting others,” and fills our hearts “whenever we look upon those in need as our brothers and sisters.”

The Pope also reflected on God as the Everlasting Father.  

“No one or anything can separate us from his Love. Go out and proclaim, go out and show that God is in your midst as a merciful Father who himself goes out, morning and evening, to see if his son has returned home and, as soon as he sees him coming, runs out to embrace him.”

Pope Francis said the knowledge of Christ's presence fills Christians with “a hope which liberates us from the forces pushing us to isolation and lack of concern for the lives of others, for the life of our city.”

This is “a hope which frees us from empty ‘connections,’ from abstract analyses, or sensationalist routines. A hope which is unafraid of involvement, which acts as a leaven wherever we happen to live and work. A hope which makes us see, even in the midst of smog, the presence of God as he continues to walk the streets of our city.”

The Pope will be in the United States until Sunday. On Saturday, he will travel to Philadelphia, where he will visit a correctional facility and take part in the World Meeting of Families.

http://catholicnewsagency.tumblr.com/post/129872354988/pope-francis-has-arrived-at-madison-square-garden Reported by CNA 23 hours ago.

D.C. Health Link testing new tool to make health insurance shopping less painful

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It's been said Americans dread shopping for health insurance just about as much as doing their taxes or getting a cavity filled. For individuals purchasing plans from D.C.'s health marketplace, there is a new feature being tested that officials say should make the process a lot easier. Called the D.C. Health Link Plan Match tool, consumers will be able to anonymously receive estimates of how much they'd pay out of pocket. Earlier this month, regulators approved new insurance rates for D.C. Health… Reported by bizjournals 7 hours ago.

He Forced The Blind To See

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He Forced The Blind To See Patch Beachwood, OH -- Politics, Religion, and a touch of Hot Chocolate in this edition of Health Insurance Issues With Dave Reported by Patch 4 hours ago.

For Pope Francis, it's imperative: religious liberty is a gift from God. Defend it.

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Philadelphia, Pa., Sep 26, 2015 / 03:41 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a Philadelphia moment laden with symbolism, Pope Francis on Saturday encouraged all Americans and all religions to unite against efforts that would limit religious freedom.

“May this country and each of you be renewed in gratitude for the many blessings and freedoms that you enjoy. And may you defend these rights, especially your religious freedom, for it has been given to you by God himself,” the Pope said Sept. 26.

“In a world where various forms of modern tyranny seek to suppress religious freedom, or try to reduce it to a subculture without right to a voice in the public square, or to use religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality, it is imperative that the followers of the various religions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance and respect for the dignity and rights of others,” he said.

The Pope reflected at length on religious freedom at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall. The venue includes the National Constitution Center and the Liberty Bell Center. The Pope recognized the symbolism of speaking of religious freedom there.

“It was here that the freedoms which define this country were first proclaimed,” he said, citing the Declaration of Independence.

“Those ringing words continue to inspire us today, even as they have inspired peoples throughout the world to fight for the freedom to live in accordance with their dignity.”

He was greeted by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who reflected that the United States is “an experiment in freedom ordered by law and ordered to basic truths about the human person. The greatest goods in the American character come from our belief in a merciful God – a God who guarantees the dignity and rights of all his children.”

Archbishop Chaput spoke about Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers, who was himself an immigrant. The archbishop said Hamilton's life shows that the United States is “a nation that no single ethnic group or privileged economic class 'owns.' It’s a country where a person who comes from nowhere can still make a difference … He reminds us that immigrants from around the world renew this country in every generation.”

Archbishop Chaput noted that “When the Church defends marriage and the family, the unborn child and the purpose of human sexuality, she’s attacked as too harsh. When she defends immigrant workers and families that are broken up by deportation, she’s attacked as too soft,” but that in fact “she is neither of those things,” but is rather a mother, “who understands and loves the whole human person; from conception to natural death; always, consistently and everywhere.”

“When it comes to immigration, the Church reminds us that in the end, all of us are children of the same loving God,” the archbishop stated. “That makes us brothers and sisters, despite the borders that separate us. And in arguing over borders to keep people out, we need to be vigilant against erecting those same borders in our hearts.”

Following Archbishop Chaput's introduction, Pope Francis discussed the nature of religion and religious freedom.

“Religious freedom certainly means the right to worship God, individually and in community, as our consciences dictate. But religious liberty, by its nature, transcends places of worship and the private sphere of individuals and families,” Pope Francis said.

Religious traditions, he said, “call individuals and communities to worship God, the source of all life, liberty and happiness” and “remind us of the transcendent dimension of human existence and our irreducible freedom in the face of every claim to absolute power.”

The religious freedom meeting’s audience included representatives of the Hispanic community and other immigrants. An estimated 50,000 people are believed to have to attend.
 
He said religious freedom is “a fundamental right which shapes the way we interact socially and personally with our neighbors whose religious views differ from our own.” He recalled the atrocities committed in the 20th century by regimes which dominated peoples and denied them “any kind of rights.”

Pope Francis also stressed the richness of religious traditions that offer meaning and direction and have “an enduring power to open new horizons, to stimulate thought, to expand the mind and heart.”

“They call to conversion, reconciliation, concern for the future of society, self-sacrifice in the service of the common good, and compassion for those in need. At the heart of their spiritual mission is the proclamation of the truth and dignity of the human person and human rights,” the Pope said.

Catholics in the United States have witnessed new threats to religious freedom in recent decades.

Catholic adoption agencies in some states have been forced to close down because laws or other government policies would require them to place children with same-sex couples. Catholic standards for school employees are also facing challenges.

The federal government has also required many religious employers to provide health insurance coverage for sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion. Those who refuse to do so face heavy fines.

Opponents of this mandate include the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns who care for the indigent poor. Their health care provider is also a Catholic organization. They have filed a legal challenge against the mandate, saying that helping to provide such drugs and procedures would violate their Catholic beliefs.

Pope Francis visited a Washington, D.C. house of the Little Sisters of the Poor on Sept. 23 to show support for their cause. The visit resulted in an iconic photo of the Pope shaking the hand of a 102-year-old nun.

In other parts of the world, especially the Middle East, Christians and other religious minorities have faced violence and even threats to their continued existence because of their religious beliefs.

Pope Francis stressed that religious freedom is a benefit to society as a whole.

“When individuals and communities are guaranteed the effective exercise of their rights, they are not only free to realize their potential, they also contribute to the welfare and enrichment of society,” he said.

The Pope warned against a cultural uniformity imposed by “the egotism of the powerful,” the “conformism of the weak,” or utopian ideology, quoting Fr. Michel de Certeau, a 20th century Jesuit from France.

“In a world where various forms of modern tyranny seek to suppress religious freedom, or try to reduce it to a subculture without right to a voice in the public square, or to use religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality, it is imperative that the followers of the various religions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance and respect for the dignity and rights of others.”

Citing his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si', the Pope warned against the “globalization of the technocratic paradigm” which “aims at a one-dimensional uniformity and seeks to eliminate all differences and traditions in a superficial quest for unity.”

In the face of such pressures, Pope Francis said that religions have the right and the duty to support a healthy pluralism that respects differences and is a “precious ally in the commitment to defending human dignity.”

He cited the history of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, whose Quaker founders sought to create “a colony which would be a haven of religious freedom and tolerance.”

He thanked people of all religions who have “sought to serve the God of Peace” in building cities of brotherly love, caring for neighbors in need, defending the poor and the immigrant, and defending “the dignity of God’s gift of life in all its stages.”

“All too often, those most in need of our help are unable to be heard. You are their voice, and many of you have faithfully made their cry heard,” the Pope said. In this witness, which frequently encounters powerful resistance, you remind American democracy of the ideals for which it was founded, and that society is weakened whenever and wherever injustice prevails.”

Speaking of the cuff, Pope Francis then reflected on globalization, clarifying that it “is not bad – on the contrary, the tendency to globalize is good. What can be bad is the way of doing it.”

When globalization attempts to impose uniformity and “would destroy the richness, the particularity of every person and people,” it is bad. But when it “seeks to unite everyone, while respecting each person in his richness, particularities, this globalization is good, and makes all of us grow, and leads to peace.”

Returning to his prepared text, he greeted “with particular affection” American Hispanics in his audience and recent immigrants to the United States.

“Many of you have emigrated to this country at great personal cost, but in the hope of building a new life,” he said. “Do not be discouraged by whatever challenges and hardships you face.”

He encouraged them to never be ashamed of their traditions.

“Do not forget the lessons you learned from your elders, which are something you can bring to enrich the life of this American land.”

He encouraged them to continue to cultivate the virtues of “vibrant faith” and their deep sense of family life.

“By contributing your gifts, you will not only find your place here, you will help to renew society from within.”

The Pope also stressed the importance of memory for Americans.

“A people which remembers does not repeat past errors; instead, it looks with confidence to the challenges of the present and the future. Remembrance saves a people’s soul from whatever or whoever would attempt to dominate it or use it for their interests.”

He said United States history is a “constant effort” to embody the Declaration of Independence’s principles.

“We remember the great struggles which led to the abolition of slavery, the extension of voting rights, the growth of the labor movement, and the gradual effort to eliminate every kind of racism and prejudice directed at successive waves of new Americans,” he said.

“This shows that, when a country is determined to remain true to its founding principles, based on respect for human dignity, it is strengthened and renewed.”
?“Never forget what happened here two centuries ago,” he implored Americans. “Don't lose the memory of that Declaration, which declared all men and women are created equal, endowed by their creator with rights which governments exist to protect and to defend.”

“Let us preserve liberty, let us take care of it: freedom of conscience, religious freedom, the freedom of every person, family, and nation, which causes other rights.”

Pope Francis concluded by leading the crowd in praying the Our Father. Reported by CNA 54 minutes ago.

American Workers Pay This Much for Health Insurance -- Do You?

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Drug prices aren't the only healthcare prices that have been climbing quickly. Health insurance premiums have also risen dramatically. Reported by Motley Fool 11 hours ago.
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