New birth control rules stigmatize women's health, still won't make men happy

Think these experts on birth control will be happy now? The Obama administration has issued new proposed rules to clarify the provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires insurers to cover birth control'specifically, which religious organizations can qualify for exemption from the mandate. The new proposed rules "would eliminate criteria that a religious employer: 1. have the inculcation of religious values as its purpose; 2. primarily employ persons who share its religious tenets; and 3. primarily serve persons who share its religious tenets."

Instead, "[t]he simple definition of 'religious employer' for purposes of the exemption would follow a section of the Internal Revenue Code, and would primarily include churches, other houses of worship, and their affiliated organizations."

The administration claims that this merely simplifies and clarifies the definition of "religious employer," and that "this proposal would not expand the universe of employer plans that would qualify for the exemption beyond that which was intended in the 2012 final rules."

Except that it sort of does:

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.

In other words, the exemption no longer applies merely to houses of worship; now any "self-certified" non-profit organizations'hospitals, universities, charities'can opt out of providing insurance coverage of birth control. That doesn't mean women who work for such organizations won't have access to birth control; they will, through a separate insurance plan for which "eligible organizations would not have to contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which they object on religious grounds." Those insurers will cover the cost of providing birth control without co-pays because insurance companies understand that it's cheaper to cover the cost of birth control than it is to cover the cost of pregnancy and child birth.

So here's the bottom line: Women with employer-provided insurance will have access to birth control, even if their employer objects and refuses to pay for it. That's very good news.

Now follow me below the fold for the bad news.