Washington, D.C. – Congressman Rick Berg joined more than 150 members of the U.S. House of Representatives in calling on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reverse a recent decision regarding the overreaching insurance mandates found in President Obama’s health care law.

In letter sent to Sebelius yesterday, the House members condemned Sebelius’s recent ruling mandating that all individual and group health insurance plans cover contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortifacients.  Sebelius’s rule does not exempt most religious-affiliated organizations that offer health insurance, even if covering such services is in violations of the organizations’ conscience rights.

“This is yet another example of the unprecedented overreach found in President Obama’s health care law,” Berg stated. “As the husband of a family practice doctor, I am strongly opposed to the Obama administration standing between the healthcare decisions of patients and their doctors, and in this case, extending its overreach into faith-based organizations’ decisions as well.  North Dakotans did not want the President’s healthcare overhaul to begin with.  The more we learn about it, the worse it is, and I will continue fighting to repeal it.”

Berg also noted that he serves as a co-sponsor of H.R. 1179, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would ensure that the provisions of the President’s health care law would not penalize or discriminate against any individual for exercising conscientious objection to the health plans or programs established by it.

The HHS decision is another example of the failures of President Obama’s health care law, which was rushed through Congress soon after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “[W]e have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” 

Berg has ardently fought to repeal President Obama’s health care law since being sworn into Congress.  He served as an original co-sponsor to H.R. 2, the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” and spoke on the House floor in support of the repeal.  While H.R. 2 passed the House by a vote of 245 to 189, Senate Democrats blocked the House’s efforts to repeal Obamacare last spring.

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