Each year, the lay ecclesial movement, Communion and Liberation (CL) in NY suggests a particular Crossroads Cultural Center (NYC) event that has a particular significance, seriousness, and the weight because of its potential impact on our lives.
There is one event in the Crossroads program which CL wants to underline and encourage everyone not only to attend but also to put effort into getting the word out among fellow parishioners, co-workers, family, etc.
This year, it is an event, October 13, at 7pm at Columbia University, entitled "Health Care Reform: What is it all about?" Below is an excerpt from the Crossroads website.
The distinguished panel of speakers will help us to understand better what practical consequences we should expect from the new health care law and its implementation. To a large extent, the debate on health care reform has been shaped by "experts," both from the academic world and from various think-tanks and professional associations. The idea behind this discussion is to ask a group of experienced professionals whose work is related to health care how the new law will concretely impact their work, and the health care system as they know it in their field of action. As a general rule, experience is the best immunization against the temptations of ideology. In the case of health care reform these temptations include both the utopian conviction that this huge social problem can basically be solved by technocratic means (i.e., government action) and the opposite prejudice, namely that nothing good can come from governmental intervention in the health care system as prescribed by the reform. Rather than joining this stale ideological struggle, we want to listen to those who will deal every day with the effects of the reform, as the best to way to learn what we should realistically expect.
The most important thing is that we take this event seriously as a personal invitation to come to know more about something in reality as it's unfolding now. It's in reality that the Divine Mystery speaks to us. We cannot simply ignore the questions and problems our society faces and claim to be above them. It's in facing reality, struggling with it, and involving ourselves with it, that we can come to know Christ more.
The presentation info:
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 7 pm
Columbia University, Philosophy Hall 301
1150 Amsterdam Avenue at 116th Street
The flyer for the event is posted here: Health Care Reform.pdf
In respect to Employer mandates, it appears from www.BenefitsManager.net and www.AHealthInsuranceQuote.com analysis that employers nationwide will be assessed a $2,000 penalty for every employee not offered group health insurance or commonly referred to employer sponsored health insurance. Does this include part time employees that traditionally didn’t qualify or buy health insurance in the first place because of the cost vrs. Hours worked? How in the world is an employer going to absorb this cost? So if an employee doesn’t want to participate in paying their share, the employer is penalized $2,000?