Duquesne opposes health care amendment

Duquesne's administration has objected to the proposed provision to the federal healthcare reform bill that would require all employer-provided insurance plans to provide free birth control access to all female subscribers, including employees of religiously-affiliated institutions.

President Barack Obama announced a provision on Feb. 10 to the Affordable Care Act, which was previously finalized Jan. 20 and is set to go into effect Aug. 1. The provision requires all employer-provided insurance plans to provide coverage for birth control and other preventative healthcare measures, including free check-ups, mammograms and immunizations, at no cost to employees.

Religious nonprofits, including universities, hospitals and charities, will have an additional year to comply with the provision.

According to a Feb. 10 statement from the White House the provision will ensure that "if a woman works for a religious employer with objections to providing contraceptive services as part of its health plan, the religious employer will not be required to provide, pay for or refer for contraception coverage, but her insurance company will be required to directly offer her contraceptive care free of charge."

Duquesne Vice President for Mission and Identity the Rev. James McCloskey said he believes the provision is unconstitutional. Like most representatives of the Catholic Church who spoke out against the provision, McCloskey said the underlying issue is that it threatens religious liberty.

"If many institutions are self-insured, this is still an issue. We're back at our starting point," McCloskey said. "They must violate their conscience to provide contraceptive services to their employees."

But McCloskey thinks the new provision will be overturned. Since many Catholic institutions are self-insured, the provision would ultimately require them to provide coverage for contraceptive services, he said.

The issue is further complicated in Duquesne's case of a pending lawsuit the University has filed against its heath care insurance provider, Highmark. According to University spokeswoman Bridget Fare, Duquesne filed a lawsuit against Highmark in August 2011 for mishandling claims and covering various drugs for employees that were not covered under Duquesne's plan, including birth control pills.

The original provision required all employers, including religiously-affiliated institutions, to offer contraceptive care to female employees as part of their insurance plans. After severe backlash to the provision from conservatives and religious groups, especially representatives of the Catholic Church, Obama amended the provision Feb. 7 to say hospitals, charities and universities with religious objections will not have to directly provide these services. Instead, their insurance provider would be responsible for making employees aware of the available contraceptive coverage.

McCloskey added that the original provision exempted Catholic parishes and institutions that served only Catholics, but the new provision does not.

The new provision has received increasing criticism from religious groups and Congressional Republicans alike. According to The New York Times, Speaker John Boehner has said that House Republicans will push legislation to challenge the policy.

According to Director of Duquesne's Center for Social and Public Policy Joseph Yennerall, politicians will debate this issue heavily, especially since 2012 is an election year.

"You can understand both sides of this. Certainly, the religious groups feel this is a violation of their religious principles," Yennerall said.  "And at the same time, the employees of these organizations who may not be Catholic may not share these beliefs and want these preventative measures covered. I think this will be a point of political contention, and the exact nature of the outcome will be decided in the political process."

Yennerall added that the constitutionality of the provision is hinged on the separation of church and state, but the provision does not force individuals to utilize every preventative measure available to them, including birth control.  

According to Obama's statement following the announcement, providing preventative care for Americans is important because "it saves lives and it saves money — for families, for businesses, for government, for everybody."

Obama added that his cabinet took the objections of religious institutions into account and came up with a compromise that holds insurance companies responsible for reaching out to employees of religious institutions to provide contraceptive services, rather than the religious institutions themselves.

"The result will be that religious organizations won't have to pay for these services, and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly," Obama said in the statement. "But women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services, just like other women, and they'll no longer have to pay hundreds of dollars a year that could go towards paying the rent or buying groceries."