Following weeks of protest by religious leaders, the Obama administration has changed its policy that nonprofit religious organizations, such as universities and hospitals, must provide insurance coverage for contraception to their employees.
Under a new plan, announced Feb. 10 by the President, these organizations will not be required to offer contraception as part of their health coverage. Instead, the health plans they contract with will offer employees contraception directly and free of change, without involvement from the employer.
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President Obama said it had always been his intention to use that year to work with nonprofit religious employers on an accommodation. But given the recent and fierce reaction to the interim final rule, he asked aides to speed up the process.
"These employers will not have to pay for, or provide contraceptive services," President Obama said during a news conference. "But women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services, just like other women, and they’ll no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go towards paying the rent or buying groceries."
The change will be cost neutral for health plans, senior administration officials said, because contraception pays for itself through the prevention of unintended pregnancies.
Churches and other houses of worship remain exempt from the requirement to provide copayment-free insurance coverage for contraceptive services, per the original regulations.
The controversy began last summer when the Obama administration issued an interim final rule outlining the women’s preventive services that health plans would be required to cover without copayment under the Affordable Care Act. The list of covered services included all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives. Many religious organizations objected, saying that the proposal did not offer a broad enough exemption for religious employers, including Catholic hospitals and charities that object to contraception on religious grounds.
The tension mounted in January when the Health and Human Services department announced plans to finalize the rules with little change. Instead of broadening the exemption, they offered nonprofit religious employers an extra year – until Aug. 1, 2013 – to comply with the rule.
During the news conference, President Obama said it had always been his intention to use that year to work with nonprofit religious employers on an accommodation. But given the recent and fierce reaction to the interim final rule, he asked aides to speed up the process.
"This is an issue where people of goodwill on both sides of the debate have been sorting through some very complicated questions to find a solution that works for everyone," he said. "With today’s announcement we’re done that. Religious liberty will be protected and a law that requires free preventive care will not discriminate against women."
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America issued a statement saying that the change would still protect women’s access to affordable contraception.
Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, which was a backer of the Affordable Care Act, also praised the announcement, saying it protected the religious liberty and conscience rights of Catholic institutions. "The framework developed has responded to the issues we identified that needed to be fixed," she said in a statement.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said the changes were nothing but gimmicks.
"This President is tone deaf to the very real religious and moral objections of millions of Americans," Mr. Perkins said in a statement. "This new proposal still requires religious entities that are not exempt as a church to subsidize and pay insurance companies so they can give free birth control to their employees. However, it won’t be free, because the insurance companies will increase the premium and administrative costs to the employer."