Current healthcare bill components and community health services impact

Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 was introduced by Senator Marco Rubio for the purpose of repealing the recent mandate that infringes religious freedom and conscience rights of religious organizations by the recent mandate within President Obama's healthcare law. The bill was developed in order to revoke the provisions in the new health care law that compels religious of faith-based institutions to provide employees with insurance coverage for contraception without any charge.

The bill seeks to amend Title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act in order to promote religious conscience protections for individuals and organizations. Senator Marco Rubio introduced this bill following recent initiatives by the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a new mandate that will require many church-affiliated institutions to provide their employees with private insurance coverage for birth control at no costs.

Component of Health Care Addressed by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act:

The delivery of health care services and the overall health care system is based on four major components i.e. coverage, timeliness, workforce, and services. Since access to comprehensive health care and the quality of these services is crucial, the four components are the foundations for access to health care services.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 deals with health care coverage since it seeks to address the mandate for faith-based institutions to provide coverage to their workers free-of-charge. As an important component health care, health insurance coverage enables patients to get access into the health care system as uninsured people have difficulties in accessing medical services easily, are more likely to die early, and have poor health status. As the new regulations in President Obama's health care law deal with provision of coverage about birth control, the new bill addresses health care coverage.

Descriptions of the New Bill:

As one of the rapidly rising Republican politicians, Senator Marco Rubio introduced the religious freedom bill in attempts to counter the mandated health care coverage of contraceptives by religious institutions. Prior, to the introduction of the bill, the Department of Health and Human Services had finalized the development of regulations that will require many church-affiliated institutions to abide by the legislations in the new health care law. These developments were established despite of numerous efforts by several religious-based institutions to be permitted an exemption on religious grounds.

The main provision in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 is that it seeks for conscience protections of individuals and faith-based institutions. This is through amendments to the Public Health Service Act with which no regulations shall require any individual or organization to provide or buy coverage for contraceptive or sterilization service ("Religious Freedom Restoration Act," 2012). In this case, the individual or organization should not be forced to provide or buy coverage or related education and counseling to contraceptives and sterilization with which the person or entity is opposed to for religious reasons.

Secondly, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act seeks to make amendments that would enable individuals and religious-based organizations to be excluded from engagement in any government-mandated speech regarding contraceptives or sterilization service. This will be followed by the elimination of any imposed fines, penalties, and additional sanctions that would be disadvantageous to an individual or religious-based entity.

The main issue that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 bill addresses is the principle of religious freedom. The basis for addressing the issue of religious freedom is the legislation in the First Amendment that prohibits the Congress from enacting laws that respect the establishment of religion or forbids the free exercise of religious practices by individuals. Through this provision in the First Amendment, the country's founders sought a protective balance that provided wide berth to religious beliefs and practices while differentiating government involvement with religion or favoritism of one religion over another. Therefore, the 2012 Religious Freedom Restoration Act is important because it addresses the need for proper balance of religious beliefs and practices based on the principle of religious freedom.

Proponents and Opponents of the Bill:

Since its introduction, the bill has received massive support from leading Republicans, catholic bishops, and some social conservatives. These people have persisted in portraying the new health care law by President Obama's administration that forces faith-based employers to provide health coverage for birth control for free as an infringement of religious freedom. They argue that the Obama administration has departed from the fundamental principle in the Constitution by imposing religious views that are not necessarily shared by many Americans (Samuels, 2012). While nearly all women in America including Catholic women use contraceptives at some point in their lives, the proponents of the bill state that they are above the law and their beliefs should surpass the pressing interests within the society.

On the contrary, there are various opponents to the bill, whose claims are supported by the fact that the legal case against the provision in the new health care law is considerably weak. This is largely because the contraception benefit is normally and basically constitutional as well as an appropriate exercise of governmental powers based on the Supreme Court precedent and federal legislations addressing the exercise of religion. Consequently, judges should have minimal difficulties in refuting the claim that the Obama administration violated the religious freedom of faith-based employers by compelling them to provide free contraceptive coverage to their workers. The claims of the opponents of the bill are based on the fact that the contraception rule is not a battle on birth control but religious freedom. Furthermore, the move to accommodate the objections of religious employers in provision of free contraceptive coverage has made the new health care law less vulnerable to any reasonable constitutional attack.

Impact of the Bill:

The bill has a major impact on the provision of health care services to the community since it will enable religious-based hospitals and health care providers to obtain liberty in health care coverage on religious grounds. If the bill is enacted into law, these health care institutions will no longer be bound under the conscience clause promoted by the new health care law. Consequently, these health care institutions will not be required to pay hefty fines and penalties that could result in forced closing down (Liberty Counsel, 2012). As the religious-based hospitals and health care providers are exempted from stiff fines and stricter contraceptives coverage plans and policies through the bill, they will be able to provide health care services more effectively.