The Obama Administration has revised the regulations that require all businesses to cover the cost of birth control in their employer sponsored health plans. The biggest change is that religious affiliated businesses won’t have to pay for this coverage. Instead, their insurers will have to pick up that bill.
The battle over birth control coverage is, without a doubt, one of the biggest news topics of the past few months. It started in August of 2011, when the Department of Health and Human Services added several types of women’s health care to the category of preventative care.
A previous health reform law required all health insurance plans to cover the cost of everything that is officially considered to be preventative care. That meant the policyholder would not be charged for a co-pay, co-insurance, or a deductible in order to receive those forms of health care treatments, screenings, or services.
This meant that health insurance plans were required to cover the cost of birth control. Which means that employer sponsored health insurance plans had to comply with this law, too. They must do this by August of 2012, (when the law officially goes into affect).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops USCCB is probably the most vocal opponent of this health reform law. To make a long story short, the Bishops felt that having to cover the cost of birth control, to “pay for it”, for their employees would violate their religious conscience.
So, the Obama Administration compromised. Churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship would not be required to cover the cost of birth control in their employer sponsored health plans. Religious affiliated businesses, however, such as Catholic hospitals, Christian universities, and religious affiliated social services agencies would have to comply with the law. They were given extra time to do so, (much longer than the non-religious businesses got).
This compromise wasn’t enough for the USCCB, and other religious groups. Several of them filed lawsuits against the federal government, in an effort to avoid having to comply with this health reform law. Many wanted the courts to find that particular law to be unconstitutional.
Now, the Obama Administration has made another compromise. Religious affiliated businesses, (such as Catholic hospitals, and religious universities), are no longer going to be required to “pay for” birth control coverage in their employer sponsored health insurance plans. Instead, their insurance company will have to cover that cost, entirely.
To me, it sounds as though the USCCB, and the rest of the religious groups that were angry about having to cover the cost of birth control, got exactly what they have been demanding. Despite this, some of them are still unhappy. Some want President Obama to issue an apology to them, or to specifically say that he was wrong. Others are concerned about how this change will affect the cost of their health insurance plans.
In Illinois, there is a state law that exempts religious businesses from having to include birth control coverage in their employer sponsored health insurance plans. Catholic businesses in Illinois are concerned about how this new federal law will affect the type of health insurance coverage that they are currently offering to their employees.
Image by Muhammad Ghafari on Flickr