Some opponents of the HHS mandate for contraceptive coverage
have accepted Obama’s accommodation, others are still holding out. Those who still object argue that even though
religious organizations will be able to exclude contraceptive coverage in their
health insurance, they will still be paying for it since the free coverage from
insurance companies will be built into the premiums religious organizations
pay. The White House is saying that won’t
happen. Here is the explanation from a senior
administration official:
“The way this works
[right now] is, I’m a Catholic hospital, and I say I’m going to offer
insurance,” said the official. “I’m going to say, ‘Aetna, I don’t want
contraceptives covered.’ Aetna is going to look at the benefits I cover, set a
premium for the anticipated costs. Then they charge that premium, which goes
into Aetna’s reserves.”
And here’s how it
works after the compromise: “Our policy is saying that the Catholic hospital
doesn’t want to cover contraceptives, and they don’t include that in their
policy. It also says that Aetna needs to provide contraceptive services for
free to workers in the plan. Aetna sets
the premium, but it cannot be higher than it would have been without birth
control. The premium does not include contraception.”
And, in the end, that leaves Aetna with the
bill. “There is a sort of bank account, and Aetna is sucking it up…They
have a reserve fund to pay for all the things they cover,” says the official. “We’re saying, ‘This is a legitimate cost
of doing business.’ That cost is covering contraceptives, and they’re
paying for that from a reserve.”
Note two important points concerning how the compromise will
work. First, under the proposed rule, the insurance company CANNOT charge the
religious organization more than it would have been charged anyway. The cost of the contraceptive coverage CANNOT
be passed through to the religious organization through higher premiums.
Second, the insurance
company must treat the cost of covering contraceptives as a “cost of doing
business” like, for example, offering policy holders a free Wellness program to
help them lose weight, eat better and manage stress or chronic conditions like
diabetes and osteoporosis.. Like the
wellness program, the insurance company absorbs the cost because in the long
term the wellness program, or in this case covering contraceptive services,
will SAVE the insurance company money by avoiding expensive treatments they
might otherwise have to cover. In short,
long-term it is cheaper to cover people who get and stay health and/or avoid
unwanted pregnancies.
Of course, some opponents of the compromise will argue that the
whole idea of the insurance company paying for the contraceptive services from
a reserve fund as a cost of doing business is just an accounting trick and somehow
the cost will still be passed through to the religious organization. However, if you follow that logic then you
could argue that ANY insurance company that provides free contraceptive
services to ANY policy holder ANYWHERE somehow passes through the cost to the
religious organizations in some way or another.
If that were true, the only way to avoid “attacking religion” would be
to forbid insurance companies from offering free contraceptive services to
ANYONE. Of course, that would be
absurd and would violate the rights of those who want such coverage.
It is time for religious groups to accept the compromise and
shut up. Obama’s accommodation is a
reasonable compromise that respects everyone’s rights and asks the insurance
companies to provide a free service that long-term will be a net zero cost or
even save them money. We need to move
on.
Read more:
No comments:
Post a Comment