Every week, reporter Jessica Marcy selects interesting reading from around the Web.
Mother Jones: The GOP Plan To Give Your Boss 'Moral' Control Over Your Health Insurance
In their latest move in the battle over contraception coverage, top Republicans in Congress are going for broke: They're now pushing a bill that would allow employers and insurance companies to pick and choose which health benefits to provide based simply on executives' personal moral beliefs. ... Last week, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) offered a "conscience amendment," to the law, pitching it as a way to allay religious employers' qualms about providing birth control to their employees. But Blunt's proposal doesn't just apply to religious employers and birth control. Instead, it would allow any insurer or employer, religiously affiliated or otherwise, to opt out of providing any health care services required by federal law-;everything from maternity care to screening for diabetes. Employers wouldn't have to cite religious reasons for their decision; they could just say the treatment goes against their moral convictions (Adam Serwer, 2/14).
The Washington Post Magazine: First Person Singular: Reina Vasquez, 50, Woodbridge, Home Health Care Provider
I was with one lady for 10 years. You see a lot happen to someone in 10 years, big changes and small things that only you notice at first, until that person doesn't look like herself anymore. She had been a lieutenant colonel, very high up, very respected, and when I started she was still in charge. She still was running her life. But the longer I was with her, the more I did. I cried and cried at her funeral. … After she died, I said, "No more." This is just too hard. It hurt too much. ... (Then), I had to start doing home health care again; it's what I know best. It's where my heart is. ... I am trying not to get too close. I do my job, but it is not easy to not care too much, you know? My job is to care (Amanda Long, 2/9).