Obama Says Contraceptive Rule Balances Religious Rights
(Updates with Obama quote, reaction starting in third paragraph.)
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, addressing an uproar over a federal requirement that employers provide coverage for contraception, said religious-affiliated charities and hospitals won’t have to pay for such services.
Instead, insurance companies will be compelled to offer them to insured employees of those institutions without charge. Obama said his administration was acting to preserve access to contraceptive coverage and at the same time address objections from religious officials.
“We live in a pluralistic society; we’re not going to agree on every issue, or share every belief,” Obama said at the White House. “That doesn’t mean we have to choose between individual liberty and basic fairness for all Americans.”
Administration officials who briefed reporters before Obama spoke said they believe the requirement will be cost-neutral for insurers because contraceptives avert costs related to prenatal care and child delivery. They said the cost cannot be passed on through higher premiums. Insurers would not be required to offer free contraceptive coverage to workers in churches and other houses of worship.
The administration’s shift is meant to quell a controversy that arose after a Jan. 20 announcement that it will enforce a provision of the 2010 health-care overhaul that included the contraceptive rule.
Groups React
The presidents of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Catholic Health Association of the United States issued statements in support of the shift in policy. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did not issue an immediate statement.
New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, president of bishops’ conference, was sharply critical of the administration’s original decision and urged Catholics to put pressure on Congress.
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Obamacare inside Ohio Individual Health Insurance Premiums in ...
Milliman forecasts that the particular execution of PPACA might strengthen premiums by more than 55 percent inside 2014 for Ohio residents with wellness insurance coverage.
The key findings of a forecast report by Milliman Inc., Seattle for the particular Ohio Department of Health Insurance are really that the particular changes occurring because a result of the particular Patient Protection and also Affordable Care Act (PPACA) might bring down the particular number of uninsured by 790,000, but strengthen premiums by more than 55% for the particular 735,000 residents who have Ohio individual wellness insurance coverage.
According that would Milliman consultants, many of these trends are really primarily driven by the particular estimated wellness status of the particular modern individual wellness insurance market and also the particular expansion of covered advantages. 1
Says Ohio Lieutenant Governor and also Department of Insurance Director Mary Taylor, This particular report clearly reveals what I have long predicted; Obamacare might result inside bigger government, unsustainable fees, and also ultimately, less consumer choice. 2
She had expressed her objections that would Obamacare inside a guest column3 earlier this particular year and also come out vehemently against the particular costly Medicaid expansion, the particular proposed modern wellness insurance regulatory bureaucracy and also home and contents insurance the particular market reforms that would make it hard for states that would regulate Ohio individual wellness insurance.
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