The Obama administration made a small step in the direction of placating religious organizations and faith-based non-profits on the controversial contraception mandate issue last week.
The contraception mandate, issued as part of the Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare”), required that all employers provide contraception coverage with health insurance. Few exemptions had been made for organizations, employers, or business owners who are opposed to contraception on moral grounds.
The new rules, issued on February 1, by the Health and Human Services Department, now broaden the definition of “religious employers” so that all houses of worship and dioceses and affiliated organizations will be clearly exempt. Second, for other faith-based employers, the rules would transfer the costs and administrative tasks of the birth control insurance policies to insurance companies.
That original HHS definition said that in order to qualify as a religious employer who would not have to provide free contraception insurance an entity would have to be a nonprofit that had “the inculcation of religious values as its purpose” and primarily employed and served co-religionists. This definition was so narrow that it excluded religious organizations that employ individuals not of its faith.
The new change replaces the original, narrow definition, and uses the standard definition of “religious employer” as found in the IRS tax code. Now, the mandate will allow faith-based hospitals and universities to provide health care insurance coverage that does not directly provide birth control coverage. Instead, the business may now provide employees a separate, individual, private insurance policy, paid for by the employee, rather than directly from the employer, that would provide contraceptive coverage at no cost.
The insurance companies who create these plans for self-insured companies will receive an offset from the federal government: Lower fees to sell plans on the new health exchanges run by the Obama administration.
The new proposal attempts to please both faith-based groups opposed to contraceptives and women’s health advocacy groups that want more available and affordable contraception options (primarily free birth control).
The new changes are helpful, but fail to protect all faith-based employers or religious business owners, who must still pay for contraceptive care they morally object. It is still a violation of religious expression to make these employers do something they find objectionable.
Many women’s health groups have announced support for the new policy.
“Today’s draft regulation affirms yet again the Obama administration’s commitment to fulfilling the full promise of its historic contraception policy,” NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said. “Thanks to this commitment, most American women will get birth-control coverage without extra expense. Increased access to birth control is a huge win for women and is necessary to prevent unintended pregnancy – a goal on which both pro-choice and anti-choice people ought to agree.”
Erin Ann McBride is the author of “This Just In,” and “You Heard It Here First,” both available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You can also find her at The Story of a Nice Mormon Girl. She has recently launched a new website to help self-published and commercially published LDS authors reach their audiences directly. Check out www.mormonbooksandauthors.com to find the latest books from your favorite writers!