Recently, the federal government required religious hospitals, universities, and social service agencies, to cover the cost of birth control in their employer sponsored health insurance plans. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has said that they will sue the federal government over this rule.
This particular insurance related issue has been going back and forth for quite some time now. In August of 2011, birth control, (as well as several other types of women’s health care), was officially included as a form of preventative care. This means all health insurance plans must cover the cost of all forms of birth control that have been approved by the FDA. They cannot charge policyholders for a co-pay, coinsurance, or deductible for anything that is considered to be preventative care.
Since then, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been fighting this decision. This is because it is against the tenets of the Catholic faith for anyone to use birth control. Therefore, the Bishops feel that requiring Catholic hospitals, Catholic universities, and Catholic social service agencies to have to include coverage of birth control in their employer sponsored health plans is asking those employers to go against their religious beliefs.
The federal government has decided that churches, synagogues, mosques, and other places of worship are exempt from this particular health insurance law. However, hospitals, universities, and social service agencies are not being given this exemption.
Instead, they will be allowed an extended period of time to adhere to the law. Other businesses have to start covering birth control in their health insurance plans as of August of this year. The religious businesses will not have to start doing this until August of 2013.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has decided to continue to fight against this health insurance law. They have said that they will initiate a legal challenge against the federal government, in an effort to avoid having to comply with this particular aspect of the Affordable Care Act.
There is also the potential that religious employers could choose to drop their employer sponsored health insurance plans entirely, leaving their workers completely without coverage, in order to avoid having to comply with a law that they feel goes against their religious views. Those of you who happen to work for one of these types of businesses might want to start shopping around for an individual health insurance plan.
Image Dave Ceasar Dela Cruz on Flickr