Bishop Lynch will end diocesan health coverage unless conscience concerns addressed
December 01, 2011
Surprising attendees at the annual Red Mass, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg announced that the diocese will no longer provide health insurance to its 2,300 employees if the Obama administration's proposed implementation of health care legislation is not changed. Employees would instead be given an additional stipend and asked to purchase their own insurance.
Under a draft mandate announced by the Department of Health and Human Services, all insurance policies--apart from those that fall under a very narrow religious exemption--would be required to cover contraception and sterilization without copayments.
Stating that "I'm extremely uncomfortable with even thinking of such a thing," Bishop Lynch said that the Church is at a "moment of history" in which it must defend "religious liberty and individual moral conscience."
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