Catholic College to Drop Health Coverage Due to Obamacare

A Catholic university in Ohio will drop its student health program because of skyrocketing premiums and a contraception requirement included in President Barack Obama’s health care plan.

According to Fox News, Franciscan University in Steubenville will not participate in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because it “requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life.”

Besides the contraception mandate, the school also cited a requirement to raise the maximum coverage to $100,000 for policyholders — causing the basic $600 cost of a student policy to double in the fall and to triple next year, university officials said.

"This is putting people in a position where they are having to choose between their faith and their morality, and now an unjust cost," Mike Hernon, the school’s advancement vice president, told Fox News Radio on Wednesday. "These sorts of regulations from the government are forcing our hand in a way that's really wrong."

Catholic organizations continue to oppose the Obama administration’s mandate that religious-based institutions such as hospitals and universities provide birth-control coverage in their insurance policies, even though the White House said that organizations with religious objections can shift the cost to their insurance companies.

The Roman Catholic Church views use of contraceptives as morally wrong. Churches themselves already are exempt from the contraceptive coverage mandate.