Obama, Birth Control Mandate, Health Insurance, Details: President Obama's New Birth Control Rules Accommodates Religious Groups

President Barack Obama's administration announced earlier today new details concerning the contraception mandate and how (after nearly 50 lawsuits from religious organizations) this new rule accommodates faith groups. These new rules require employers with religious objection to the mandate to self-certify that they are religiously-based non-profits, therefore qualifying the organization's exemption to provide birth control and other related health care benefits. The organization must then instruct a third-party insurer to provide coverage for an employee in need of such benefits directly.

Details of the rules will surely be scrutinized and debated, but the Obama administration is certainly taking a step in the right direction in considering the wants of the faith groups that are affected by this mandate. The Center for Consumer Information and Oversight provides the new rules for the legislation on their website (here). To quickly show an example of the accommodations, we have provided the following quote:

Consistent with the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) , the NPRM proposes accommodations for additional non profit religious organizations, while also separately providing enrollees contraceptive coverage with no co-pays.  An eligible organization would be defined as an organization that:

1. opposes providing coverage for some or all of any contraceptive services required to be covered under Section 2713 of the PHS Act, on account of religious objections;
2. is organized and operates as a nonprofit entity;
3. holds itself out as a religious organization; and
4. self-certifies that it meets these criteria and specifies the contraceptive services for which it objects to providing coverage.

The original mandate in question went into effect on Aug. 1, 2012 and required most employers to cover birth control for their female employees at no additional cost. Religiously affiliated groups that are not churches, such as schools and hospitals, can choose not to pay for contraception coverage. An insurer would be responsible for the cost of coverage at this point. Churches and other houses of worship are completely exempt from the mandate. These accommodations were unsatisfactory for many faith groups, leading to 48 lawsuits on grounds of violating religious freedoms. Lawsuits from religious non-profits that self-insure were thrown out due to a one year grace period for compliance with the birth control coverage rule. The new rules implemented today address the issues that caused the lawsuits, so hopefully soon the matter will be resolved soon. There has been no word from the United States Catholic Church in regards to the new rules.