St. John the Evangelist - Ancient Faith, Modern Relevance

In the firestorm on Capitol Hill and throughout the United States over the topic of health care reform, it seems that legislators have missed a key issue. As Mike McManus writes (http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1180…): "While abortion and public plan aspects of health reform have been debated, a far more vexing issue for defenders of the traditional family should be the very substantial marriage penalties buried in the 2,457 page bill moving through Congress." He further points out: ""For example, an individual earning $25,000 would pay only $1,538 in insurance premiums. But what if that person is cohabiting with a partner with the same income, and they decide to marry? Their premium is not $3,072, double the cost of one person, but $5,160. That’s a marriage penalty of $2,084."

Oversight or intentional, we have to be thoughtful and attentive in this debate! For more data, see the right margin of our web page "Ethics in the Public Forum" for links to the text of the House and Senate bills.