As reported by The Wisconsin State Journal, there is a possibility Catholic organizations will have to pay for birth control. While this raises a first amendment issue that is legitimate, industries that are in the field of public health should serve public health. As for the larger political question of Obamacare, many necessary reforms are being made to expand coverage and cut costs. The bill was far from perfect, but it is in the process of becoming an effective solution to the health care problems we have faced for a generation.

There is a first amendment issue with Obamacare in that it does mandate something that may contradict one’s personal beliefs, but it is not a severe abridgement of this right. These are trained health professionals. A doctor cannot refuse that someone be treated for religious reasons. The Hippocratic Oath tells them to do no harm, and there are health benefits to taking birth control pills. The pill can reduce menstrual cramps and protect against pelvic inflammatory disease. Combination pills protect against a school of other health issues including iron deficiency, infection and even some types of cancer.

People who are in the field of public health should serve public health, and employers should serve the health of their employees. Faith-based insurance industries should have to follow the law, and faith-based businesses should have to cover their employees just like everyone else. Although people’s religious beliefs are important, people in the health insurance industry know what they are signing up for. The bill does not say that the church or the industries cannot propose alternative methods.

Obamacare was a necessary reform to a very flawed system. It bends the cost curve and saves the U.S. money. It is projected by Doctors for Global Health to cover 32 million Americans who otherwise would not be covered, many of whom could not afford it. It implements regulations that make health care run more efficiently and better for all of us. The bill was by no means perfect; it was full of pork and was the product of a corrupt process, but it was effective in what it set out to do: improve insurance for all of us.

Spencer Lindsay (sclindsay@wisc.edu) is a freshman majoring in political science.

Your taxpayer dollars will be used to pay for other people’s heath care and contraceptives in the disgustingly expensive “Obamacare” bill. Whereas before you only had to pay for other people’s children through welfare, now you will support contraceptives you may not even believe in. You’ll pay for health insurance that you won’t use and hospitals you may never visit.

Contraceptives are a big issue in this bill, especially when those people who do not believe in their use will be forced to pay for it for others. If the Democrats wanted contraceptives paid for the 1 percent on the left should just foot the bill. I personally don’t use birth control, and I’d hate for my tiny paycheck to be cut even more.

Adding insult to injury is how the bill will force of institutions to pay for contraceptives that it has a religious disagreement with or suffer removal of federal funding as punishment, as reported by The Wisconsin State Journal. Many see the Catholic Church to be entirely against birth control. However, recent movements have been made by the Church suggesting a loosening of contraceptive policy, as reported by The Guardian. No law should force a religion to do anything that it does not agree with.

Obamacare’s socialist principles are also wrong in that they do not give a choice in allowing dissenters to require out-of-pocket payments for controversial items like birth control. A simple compromise would have been to implement all the costly measures minus the controversial contraceptives part.

There is no compromise, and churches are again threatened by the punishment of funding removal. This law will give government ultimate authority over health care, and that much power is something of which to be afraid. The cost of Obamacare is astronomical, especially when we’ve had a national debt of over $1 trillion since 2009 as reported by Business Insider.

If you want to use contraceptives, I have no qualms with that. You may go and buy them, but I don’t want to pay for them, nor do I want to pay for other people’s hospital visits and medications. If you personally want to pay for other people, I suggest you send a check to the National Treasury right now. Otherwise, if you want to keep the paycheck you earn, then join the fight against Obamacare.

Vincent Borkowski (vborkowski@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in neurology.