Obama administration offers new 'compromise' on HHS mandate

February 01, 2013

The Obama administration has announced a new policy that would allow religious employers to provide employees with health-care plans that do not include coverage for contraceptives.

The “compromise,” which the Obama administration had promised for religious employers, would allow for employees to enroll in a health-care plan that did not include contraceptive coverage. However, all employees would then also be enrolled in a separate policy, carried by a 3rd-party provider, that would cover contraceptives at no additional cost.

The new policy, unveiled February 1, would apply only to nonprofit institutions with direct ties to a religious body. Private employers who have moral objections to subsidizing contraception would not be covered by the proposal. The Obama administration reasoned that this approach should satisfy the concerns of religious groups because they would not “have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the president of the US bishops’ conference, said that he would “study the proposed regulations closely” before issuing a response. The US bishops’ conference was reportedly not consulted by the White House before the new policy was released.

 

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Further information:

• Obama administration offers faith groups new opt-out of health care birth control mandate (AP)
• The White House’s contraceptives compromise (Washington Post)
• Obama administration changes contraception rules (Politico)
• Opt out option expected for religious insurers who oppose contraceptives (CNN)
• HHS rejects broader religious exceptions to contraception mandate (The Hill)