Today President Obama annoucned that his administration has formulated a compromise which attempts to still provide cost-free health insurance coverage of contraceptives while maintaining religious freedoms. A video fo the announcement can be seen to the left. While some Catholic groups approved of the compromise, any conservatives are still unhappy with the proposal, setting a potential fight between the White House and the Republicans in the House of Representatives in the near future.
Under the old proposed rule large employers would have been required to offer health insurance policies that covered contraceptive devices, like birth control, with no co-pay or deductible costs to the beneficiary. Religious organizations, most notably the Catholic church, objected to that regulation on grounds that it would violate their religious freedom. Churches were exempted, but Catholic-owned hospitals and universities would have still been forced to comply.
Under the new rule, women still must be offered contraceptive coverage at no additional costs, but the employer is taken completely out of the equation. Employers like Catholic hospitals would be able to exempt themselves from the requirement from the regulation, but then the health insurance company would be required to offer cost-free coverage to the employees directly. The regulation has no additional costs, since the use of contraceptives reduces the incidence of unplanned pregnancies. For the health insurance companies, the cost of pregnancy is much greater than the cost of covering contraceptive devices.
The compromise seems like a classic win-win scenario. The Obama administration meets their goal of providing co-pay and deductible free contraceptive coverage to women, who otherwise might be forced to pay over $600 each year simply because of their sex at birth. Catholic organizations would not be required to pay for the health insurance plans that cover the contraception. The Catholic Hospitals Association and Catholics United both supported the compromise after President Obama announced it today.
However, some conservatives and elected Republicans in Congress are still not happy. Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum argued that contraceptive coverage should not be in any group insurance plan. Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) called the compromise an “accounting gimmick” that still allegedly violated constitutional freedoms. The Republicans will likely not be able to repeal the regulation since Democrats have a majority in the Senate, but the GOP could try to pass a symbolic measure in the House. However, it is unclear if Republicans will be willing to take this step since many of their own members are more moderate and reluctant to engage in a fight over contraceptive coverage.
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