Obama To Offer Non-compromise Compromise On Contraceptive Mandate

10 Feb, 2012 by William Teach

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The question is, how much will Obama scold people who have different beliefs than him, and how much will he lecture

(ABC News) With the White House under fire for its new rule requiring employers including religious organizations to offer health insurance that fully covers birth control coverage, ABC News has learned that later today the White House –possibly President Obama himself –will likely announce an attempt to accommodate these religious groups.

The move, based on state models, will almost certainly not satisfy bishops and other religious leaders since it will preserve the goal of women employees having their birth control fully covered by health insurance.

My money’s on this being all smoke and mirrors, designed to deflect the controversy out of the limelight. ‘Cause the last thing Team Obama wants is to have to discuss his “signature legislation” during an election year.

Update: here we go, via WRAL

Women will still get guaranteed access to birth control without co-pays or premiums no matter where they work, a provision of Obama’s health care law that he insisted must remain. But religious universities and hospitals that see contraception as an unconscionable violation of their faith can refuse to cover it, and insurance companies will then have to step in to do so.

Seems to be more of semantics: religious organizations get to say they don’t cover objectionable issues, but, their insurance carriers still have to pay.

“No woman’s health should depend upon who she is or where she works or how much money she makes,” the president said in a statement to reporters at the White House. “Every woman should be in control of the decisions that affect her own health, period.”

If someone else is paying, they are no longer in control.

White House officials said Obama has the legal authority to order insurance companies to provide free contraception coverage directly to workers. He will demand it in a new rule.

And there’s one of the problems, government can tell any private entity how to run their business. It’s almost like ….socialism.

Anyhow, Champ had to retreat: the last thing he wants to do is have people think about his fantastically unpopular “signature legislation” during an election year.