The White House’s contraceptives compromise 1FEB13

THE right wing hypocrites who claim to be pro life and then fight tooth and nail against adequate funding for pro life social safety net programs benefiting children and their families will twist this into some sort of victory, but as long as the women who work at these institutions still have unrestricted access to insurance plans that provide birth control at no cost to the patient we know who really won. From Planned Parenthood and the Washington Post....
President Obama is holding the line on making no-cost birth control available to women no matter where they work. Now it's our turn. The administration has 60 days to collect public comments on the rule -- I made mine in support and I need you to add yours right now.http://ppaction.org/bc2013

By Sarah Kliff 

The Obama administration proposed broader latitude Friday for religious nonprofits that object to the mandated coverage of contraceptives, one that will allow large faith-based hospitals and universities to issue plans that do not directly provide birth control coverage.

Their employees would instead receive a stand-alone, private insurance policy that would provide contraceptive coverage at no cost.

The new proposal aims to find middle ground between faith-based nonprofits that have a religious opposition to contraceptives and women’s health advocates who vociferously supported the required coverage of birth control without co-payment.

It could also breathe new life into lawsuits filed against the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive requirement, some of which were put on hold until the Obama administration clarified its policy on the issue.

Under this proposal, objecting nonprofits will be allowed to offer employees a plan that does not cover contraceptives. Their health insurer will then automatically enroll employees in a separate individual policy, which only covers contraceptives, at no cost. This policy would stand apart from the employer’s larger benefit package.

The faith-based employer would not “have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds.”

The Affordable Care Act initially required all employers to cover contraceptives as part of a larger package of preventive health benefits for women. Some religious groups opposed the requirement, which they argued would force them to go against their faith-based beliefs. Houses of worship would be exempt.

Last February, the Obama administration announced an accommodation to faith-based nonprofits: A third-party insurance company would cover the cost of contraceptive coverage.

Religious leaders derided the policy as an “accounting gimmick,” arguing that the premiums they pay to a health insurer could ultimately end up paying for the contraceptives they opposed.

The compromise also did not address large companies that self-insure, footing the entire bill for their employees’ health care rather than paying premiums to an health insurance plan. The Obama administration outlined a number of policy suggestions in March that could address those concerns. It included proposals such as contracting with a national insurance plan to provide coverage or tapping into other pots of federal dollars.

Under the policy proposed Friday, self-insured plans opting out of contraceptive coverage would notify the company that administers their health benefits. That third-party administrator would then be responsible for arranging “separate individual health insurance policies for contraceptive coverage from an issuer providing such polices.”

Insurers who create these plans for self-insured companies will receive an offset from the federal government: Lower fees to sell plans on the new health exchanges run by the Obama administration.

Private employers and faith-based nonprofits have filed more than 40 lawsuits against the contraceptive mandate. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in January that it would hold a legal challenge from two colleges, Belmont Abbey in Belmont, N.C. and Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., “in abeyance” as the Obama administration worked to issue these new rules.

Reaction from institutional Catholicism seemed cautious. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, leader of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – essentially the spokesman for the U.S. church – used the term “welcome” to describe how bishops and their lawyers would review the new regulations.

“Today, the Administration issued proposed regulations regarding the HHS mandate.  We welcome the opportunity to study the proposed regulations closely. We look forward to issuing a more detailed statement later,” Dolan said in a midday statement Friday.

Reactions also reflected the huge diversity within Catholicism of this issue.

University of Notre Dame, a key barometer of American Catholicism, said in a statement officials wouldn’t comment until they’d studied the proposal more closely. Notre Dame stirred the ire of traditional Catholics when it honored President Obama in 2009 by giving him an honorary degree and hosting him as commencement speaker. Three years later, the school joined dozens of other mostly Catholic non profits in suing the administration over the mandate.

More liberal Catholic figures – who are statistically more in line with the contraception practices of most American Catholics – applauded the White House Friday.

“HHS and the administration have gone out of their way to resolve the concerns of religious institutions that object to covering contraceptives in their insurance programs,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, former editor of prominent Catholic magazine America and a well-known writer. “They have also found creative ways to provide contraceptives to the employees of religious colleges and hospitals without the involvement of these institutions.”

The Becket Fund, which represents most of the non-profits suing the White House over the mandate, said the new rule “does nothing to protect the religious liberty of millions of Americans.” However the same statement noted the firm “continues to study what effect, if any, the Administration’s proposed rule has on the many lawsuits” involving Becket’s clients, including Catholic news organization EWTN, evangelical Wheaton College and Ave Maria University.

Many women’s health groups quickly supported the new policy.

“Today’s draft regulation affirms yet again the Obama administration’s commitment to fulfilling the full promise of its historic contraception policy,” NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue said. “Thanks to this commitment, most American women will get birth-control coverage without extra expense.  Increased access to birth control is a huge win for women and is necessary to prevent unintended pregnancy — a goal on which both pro-choice and anti-choice people ought to agree.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/01/the-white-houses-contraceptives-compromise/?print=1  

Florida Gov. Rick Scott Wants A Favor—From Obama 9JAN13

REPIGLICAN gov rick scott r FL has made it clear he is opposed to Obamacare and has decided to opt out of the expansion of Medicaid. That hasn't stopped him from going to Washington, hat in hand, asking for a waiver from HHS Sec Sebelius to let him privatize Medicaid in Florida. Not only would his plans remove hundreds of thousands of Floridians from Medicaid by increasing the cost, it would increase the profit margins of the health care privateers by denying coverage and increasing charges to Medicaid patients. He also wants to increase co-pays and monthly premiums to Medicaid patients. Keep in mind this grand plan comes from the former ceo of columbia/hca, the company that stole millions of dollars from the federal govt in the biggest health care fraud case tried in the U.S. This from Mother Jones....

—By Stephanie Mencimer

Richard Graulich/The Palm Beach Post/ZUMAPress

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) was in Washington, DC on Monday to make a deal. Florida, along with a handful of other Republican-run states, is still trying to wage war against Obamacare by refusing to take the generous expansion of Medicaid provided for in the new law. The expansion would provide government insurance to around a million poor and lower-middle-class Floridians, and the federal government has promised to foot almost all of the bill.
Last June, after the Supreme Court decision making the Medicaid expansion optional for the states, Scott said he won't take the money. But when Florida hospitals realized Scott's decision could cost them about $650 million a year in other federal payments, they started lobbying furiously to get him to change his mind. So now, after two years suing, demonizing and otherwise attacking President Barack Obama and the Democrats' health care bill, Scott wants to negotiate. He came to Washington saying that he'd like to "work with the administration to reduce the cost of health care." But that doesn't mean he's changed his mind.
Instead, what Scott wants from Kathleen Sebelius, Obama's secretary of health and human services, is something that might actually make Florida’s dismal insurance situation—nearly 4 million Floridians are uninsured—even worse. Scott wants the Sebelius to give him official permission, called a waiver, to hand over the entire existing Medicaid program to private managed care companies. Don't count on that happening.
Here's why. Florida already has a small pilot project approved by George W. Bush's administration that shunts Medicaid participants into HMO-type organizations. Scott has hailed this as a genius innovation that keeps costs down. But a close look at the program reveals no such miracles. A study by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute concluded that there was no evidence the pilot project was saving money—and even if it was, any savings could have been from denying people needed care. (Anecdotal reports suggested that was the case.)
The Georgetown group also found that it would be all but impossible to make Medicaid more efficient, especially compared with private insurance. Between 2007 and 2012, private sector family insurance premiums rose more than 31 percent, but Florida's per-person Medicaid costs actually fell by five percent. And the idea that Rick Scott is giving the federal government tips on making health care more efficient is interesting given that when he ran his own health care company, Columbia/HCA, it was systematically bilking the federal government of millions of dollars in what turned out to be the biggest health care fraud case the US has ever prosecuted.
So maybe it's not surprising that the Obama administration has so far refused to allow Scott to expand the Medicaid pilot project, much less add another million people to it. And that's not all Scott wants: He's also asked Sebelius to allow Florida to charge all Medicaid patients unprecedented co-pays, such as $100 for emergency room visits not deemed an emergency, plus $10 monthly premiums. The Georgetown Health Policy Institute concluded that such a change would prompt about 800,000 poor parents and children to leave the program, an outcome that flies in the face of the administration's goal of extending Medicaid in the first place. After Monday's meeting with Sebelius, Scott said he was optimistic that he'd get what he wanted, or at least another meeting. Given his track record, he probably shouldn't hold his breath.

Stephanie Mencimer

Reporter

Stephanie Mencimer is a staff reporter in Mother Jones' Washington bureau. For more of her stories, click here. You can also follow her on Twitter. RSS | Twitter

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http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/01/florida-gov-rick-scott-wants-favor-obama 

Birth control covered... for now & White House compromise still guarantees contraceptive coverage for women 10FEB12

THIS compromise protects a woman's access to free birth control, and that was the objective of Progressives and the Social Justice advocates. If this controversy continues it will only prove that it was not about differing opinions on the separation of Church and State, but was a war on birth control, women's health care, family planning and the Obama administration. From the ACLU and the Washington Post......

I'm sure you've heard that the Obama administration today announced that it would modify its policy on contraception insurance coverage. The most important thing is that today’s action ensures that every woman who needs coverage for contraception will receive it. As you know, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and other groups have vehemently protested the original policy. Tens of thousands of ACLU supporters joined in a national outcry urging President Obama to refuse to yield to false arguments about religious liberty — aimed at undermining access to contraception. Clearly, our voices were heard — and, once again, we have powerful evidence of the critical importance of stepping forward and speaking up when our fundamental freedoms are put at risk. Thank you. The new policy will allow religiously affiliated universities, hospitals and social services to opt out of paying for contraceptive coverage and instead have insurance companies directly provide coverage to employees. Our work is not over, however. The USCCB and other groups will look for new ways to get this policy reversed. And we must be prepared to stand strong against any group who tries to impose one set of religious beliefs on the rest of us. I know we can count on you to stand with us. Thank you for continued support. Sincerely, Louise Melling Deputy Legal Director, ACLU © ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004

 WHITE HOUSE COMPROMISE STILL GUARANTEES CONTRACEPTIVE COVERAGE FOR WOMEN

By David Nakamura, Peter Wallsten and N.C. Aizenman

Seeking to allay the concerns of Catholic leaders and head off an escalating political storm, President Obama on Friday announced an adjustment to the administration’s health-care rule requiring religiously affiliated employers to provide contraceptive coverage to women.
Women still will be guaranteed coverage for contraceptive services without any out-of-pocket cost, but will have to seek the coverage directly from their insurance companies if their employers object to birth control on religious grounds.
Religiously-affiliated non-profit employers such as schools, charities, universities, and hospitals will be able to provide their workers with plans that exclude such coverage. However, the insurance companies that provide the plans will have to offer those workers the opportunity to obtain additional contraceptive coverage directly, at no additional charge.
Churches remain exempt from the birth-control coverage requirement. And their workers will not have the option of obtaining separate contraceptive coverage under the new arrangement.
The administration’s decision to make an adjustment reflected the high political stakes of an issue that had generated intense criticism in recent days from a growing chorus of Catholic and Republicans leaders, as well as some Democrats. In Congress and on the campaign trail, leading Republicans attacked the Obama administration’s position as a war on religion.
In an appearance in the White House briefing room, Obama said he instructed aides to craft a solution quickly in the wake of the outcry.
“After many genuine concerns were raised over the last few weeks — and the more cynical desire to make this into political football — it became clear that spending months hammering out a solution was not an option; we had to move this faster,” Obama said, flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose agency is administering the rule.
“I’ve been confident from the start we could work out a sensible approach here,” the president added. “Some folks in Washington may want to treat this as another political wedge issue, but it shouldn’t be. I never saw it that way. It’s people with goodwill on both sides of the debate sorting through a complicated issue to find a solution that works for everyone. Today’s announcement has done that.”
White House officials said Obama called Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan, Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic health group and a key White House ally in Obama’s health-care overhaul, and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards to explain the new rules. The officials declined to elaborate on the nature of the conversations.
During a conference call with reporters to explain details, a senior White House official said that the impact of the change on insurers would be cost neutral--and even potentially cost-saving--because on balance it would reduce the need to provide medical coverage related to unwanted pregnancies and other conditions that can be avoided with birth control.
“The new policy ensures women can get contraception without paying a co-pay and addresses important concerns raised by religious groups,” the White House said in a statement.
Progressive groups and Democratic lawmakers quickly applauded the compromise, and the White House noted that two organizations that had disagreed on the issue -- Planned Parenthood, which supported the original rule, and the Catholic Health Association, which opposed it-- released statements praising the new policy.
  Keehan said her organization was “very pleased” with the announcement.
  “This difference has at times been uncomfortable, but it has helped our country sort through an issue that has been important throughout the history of our great democracy,” Keehan’s statement said.
Still, the announcement drew a swift rebuke from some conservative Catholics. Jim Towey, who headed President George W. Bush’s faith-based office and now is president of Ave Maria University, a conservative Catholic school near Naples, Fla., said the university board planned to meet Monday to discuss legal action against the new mandate.
     “We subsidize these health plans, so the question is whether university resources are underwriting this,” Towey said.
      “I still don’t think President Obama gets it,” Towey added. “This is a fig-leaf of a political compromise that’s trying to have it both ways, to mollify women’s groups and so-called centrist Catholics. But I think fundamentally this is not the end of this debate, it’s just the beginning.”
The compromise goes beyond similar accommodations in Hawaii and several other states, because in those states, insurers can charge an extra premium for the contraceptive coverage.
Administration officials did not explain why the compromise was not incorporated earlier, despite the fact that it had been widely discussed as early as last fall.
“This is a tough issue,” an administration official said. But, the official added, “I think what we’re doing today is a very, very common-sense, responsible way forward.”
That policy proposed last summer and confirmed last month as part of Obama’s health-care overhaul law required employers to provide female employees the full range of contraceptive coverage, including birth control, the “morning-after pill” and sterilization services.
The measure exempted churches but covered religiously affiliated schools, charities, colleges and hospitals, meaning that many Catholic-run institutions would have had to offer insurance plans that church leaders say violate their teachings.
Catholic bishops led a firestorm of opposition to the rule, distributing letters and other materials to be shared with millions of worshipers.
Republicans, and some Democrats, seized on the issue, with GOP presidential candidates accusing Obama of waging a war against religion. Republican lawmakers threatened to pass a law invalidating the White House ruling unless the White House relented.
In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Friday morning, White House hopeful Rick Santorum called the controversy an example of the Obama administration overstepping its authority in people’s private lives.
“It’s not about contraception,” Santorum said, calling birth control costs “minor expenses.” “It’s about government control of your lives.” 
Former Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, told the group the issue should be a rallying cry for all conservatives, even though opposition to the rule was championed by Catholics.
“We are all Catholics now,” said Huckabee, who was raised a Southern Baptist. Noted that he had never expected to make such a statement, he added: “Praise the Lord and pass the offering plate. It’s time to get serious.”
The controversy also exposed divisions among Democrats, with several stepping forward in recent days to criticize Obama’s handling of the issue. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), who co-sponsored legislation to reverse the rule, called the measure “un-American” in a letter to Obama last week. Former Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, one of Obama’s closest political allies, said Obama must find a middle path.
At the same time, White House officials say they came under intense pressure from women’s groups and many Democratic lawmakers to stand firm on the underlying principle of the rule -- that women should have full access to contraception.
It was not immediately clear whether Friday’s announcement would satisfy the rule’s most ardent critics.
In addition to Hawaii, three other states--Missouri, New York, and West Virginia--also require insurers to provide workers birth-control “riders,” according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit research organization specializing in women’s reproductive health.