In an effort to placate the Catholic Church (good luck with that), President Obama said today that institutions like Catholic-affiliated hospitals and universities won’t have to provide birth control directly to their employees. Where an institution objects, the burden will be on the insurance company to reach out to women to offer the coverage without co-pays.
So the contraception coverage transaction will be between women and the health insurance provider, with the Church cut out of the deal. This is similar to how the issue is handled in Hawaii, the state that the right confuses with Kenya.
Two thoughts on this:
First, it just highlights the absurdity of having “employer-based” health care in the first place. This system is an anachronism, left over from the days of World War II, when employers trying to attract scarce workers offered them free health care to get around wage and price controls.
We’ve been stuck with this system ever since, which means that when people lose their jobs, they lose their health insurance too. We should choose and own our health insurance, as we do our car and home insurance. And we should be able to choose that insurance across state lines to allow more competition on price and coverage.
Second, we’ve seen how well it works when President Obama tries to appease congressional Republicans. It will be the same with the Catholic Church. They won’t take a fair solution and be satisfied, they’ll just demand more.