Senate proposal could “wreak havoc on low-income families and struggling communities, and must not be supported,” the bishops said in a statement released on Thursday evening.
"The Catholic Church remains committed to ensuring the fundamental right to medical care, a right which is in keeping with the God-given dignity of every person, and the corresponding obligation as a country to provide for this right."
The hospitals—two with Catholic affiliation and one with Lutheran ties—had argued that their pensions are "church plans" that are exempt from the law and have been treated as such for decades by federal officials.