Employers across the country are going to the courtroom to challenge what their obligations might be regarding what happens in the bedroom.
It's all because the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires that employers who offer health plans to their employees must cover health prevention services. That, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, includes preventing pregnancy.
This has raised a hue and a cry mostly among religious groups; the Catholic Church has bluntly said there ain't no way it is going there. Religious organizations that offer coverage have already been given a pass on the matter, as a result of the uproar.
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But increasingly, religiously inclined private business owners are objecting to paying for any form of birth control.
The blog for Health Affairs journal says that more than 60 suits have been lodged against this requirement of the PPACA, both by religious groups and employers.
"HHS has recently issued regulations intended to accommodate the objections of religious employers and organizations to covering contraceptives," writes scholar and author Timothy Jost on the HA blog. "These regulations do not, however, accommodate the objections of secular, for-profit businesses."
Citing the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Jost says 35 cases have been filed by private employers objecting to providing such coverage. Of these, 30 cases have been adjudicated.
The score so far: 23 pro employer, seven pro HHS policy.
Jost sees the matter brewing until it finally makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court, where a final resolution would emerge. However, such a ruling would focus only on the issue of contraceptive coverage, not on the larger legislation itself, he says.
In mid-July, Hobby Lobby Inc. was given a temporary exemption from the requirement to give the federal government time to consider filing an appeal with the Supreme Court.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
