Going For Broke: GOP Senator Wants To Grant Employers The Right To Deny Any Medical Coverage.

Last time, President Barack Obama sidestepped the GOP and Catholic Church's opposition to birth control as a part of health insurance coverage, by allowing health insurance providers to directly offer that coverage to employees without religious entities and employers paying a single dime, thereby eliminating the possibility of "material cooperation with evil." Bereft of the ability to claim a religious objection to birth control in health care plans, the GOP is going for broke:

In response to the Obama administration’s requirement that all healthcare plans provide birth control, Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), in another effort to pander the 1% of the female population who have never used birth control and the men who want them to be barefoot and pregnant, introduced an amendment to the transportation bill (that’s right, transportation bill) that would allow any employer to deny any coverage on any whim.

Sen. Blunt knew this measure would die a hot death if it wasn't quietly buried in an unrelated bill when no one was looking. And this, ladies and gents, is why the Democrats should be constantly on guard for such legislative treachery from the GOP -- they'd do anything to achieve their goals, no matter how.

Fortunately, Harry Reid was able to smell this bullshit and put a quick end to it:

The move was intercepted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who blocked the contraception-repeal amendment being called for by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., calling it “senseless.”

”I appreciate the Republicans’ opportunity to never lose an opportunity to mess up a good piece of legislation,” Reid said sarcastically. “Let’s do the banking part of this bill. Let’s do the finance part of this bill. Let’s do the commerce part of this bill. But to show how the Republicans never lose an opportunity to mess up a good piece of legislation, listen to this: They’re talking about 1st amendment rights, the Constitution.”

Now, now, Harry. We all know the First Amendment and the Constitution in general only applies when it works in the GOP's favor.

And here is why this measure was so dangerous in the first place:

Under the measure, an insurer or an employer would be able to claim a moral or religious objection to covering HIV/AIDS screenings, Type 2 Diabetes treatments, cancer tests or anything else they deem inappropriate or the result of an “unhealthy” or “immoral” lifestyle. Similarly, a health plan could refuse to cover mental health care on the grounds that the plan believes that psychiatric problems should be treated with prayer.

Imagine going to your doctor to have a life-saving procedure performed, only to be denied health coverage for it because your employer deems it anathema to his/her/their religious beliefs. In order to eradicate the scourge of women having open and affordable access to birth control, they're ready and willing to place other lives in danger.