Q: Was the Obama administration going to require churches to cover birth control?
A: No, churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship were not being required to cover the pill. That was never the issue.
Instead the battle is over nonprofit institutions affiliated with a religion. For example, a Catholic hospital or a college chartered by a denomination but open to students of all faiths or no faith. The Roman Catholic Church is opposed to artificial birth control methods, but polls show that the faithful in the pews generally use contraceptives anyway.
Q: Well, what was going to change for the hospitals and soup kitchens?
A: Previously the administration had said that such affiliated institutions were basically going to be treated like all other employers and insurance plans. They would have to cover birth control as part of a package of preventive services for women. The only concession was one more year to phase in the changes.
Obama has now walked that back. Employers affiliated with a religion will not have to provide birth control coverage if it offends their beliefs. However, the insurers that cover their workers will be required to offer birth control directly to women working for the religious employer, and do so free of charge.
Q: Wait a minute, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Insurers are going to pay for birth control themselves?
A: They may not have any alternative, but eventually they’ll figure out how to pass on the cost.
An administration report says the cost of providing birth control should be a wash for insurers. It’s a lot cheaper than paying for labor and delivery. Officials also say the government has the power to order insurers to do so under Obama’s health care overhaul law.
That may not sit well with the industry. Insurers point out that unless drug makers stop charging for pills, and doctors decide to prescribe them pro bono, birth control coverage isn’t free.
Q: How are women who don’t work for a church or a Catholic hospital going to be affected?
A: They’re not.
Beginning next Jan. 1, in most cases, women will have access to birth control at no additional charge through their job-based coverage, as part of a package of preventive services that also includes HIV screening and support for breast-feeding mothers. (Some employers won’t have to provide the added coverage, but not for religious reasons. They’re considered “grandfathered” under the health care law.)
Birth control pills are the most common drug prescribed to women, and medical experts say that planned, optimally spaced pregnancies are good for the health of mothers and infants alike.
The coverage requirement applies to all forms approved by the Food and Drug Administration. That includes the pill, intrauterine devices, the so-called morning-after pill, and newer forms of long-acting implantable hormonal contraceptives that are becoming widely used in the rest of the industrialized world.
Read More: http://news.yahoo.com/q-obama-birth-control-controversy-203523643.html;_ylt=Al_T7pUBPBpPA0bcMyhVMj3rSLYF;_ylu=X3oDMTRiZTc2MHF2BG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBIZWFsdGhTRiBTZXh1YWxIZWFsdGhTU0YEcGtnAzE0ZjcyZDY2LTAyYjYtM2ViOS05NGE2LWI0ZTBiNzAzNjliMgRwb3MDNARzZWMDdG9wX3N0b3J5BHZlcgNlMjM3ZTcwNC01NDhhLTExZTEtYjdlZi03ZjM1MzBhMzI1Njk-;_ylg=X3oDMTI4NHBmdDRsBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANoZWFsdGh8c2V4dWFsIGhlYWx0aARwdANzZWN0aW9ucwR0ZXN0Aw–;_ylv=3
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