Obama Health Care Rules Back Down From Catholics

The Obama administration yesterday changed a new health care rule that would require all religious organizations to provide free contraceptive coverage for their employees, even if it went against the religious beliefs of the organization. The change now stipulates that the insurance companies have to provide free contraceptive care to employees of religious organizations, rather than the organization itself.

This maneuver helped to soften the fallout from the previous rule, which religious groups were vehemently against. The only push back over the new rule was from the insurance industry, which worried that they would not be allowed to factor this new benefit into their prices for plans. The price effect should be small, but the primary concern of the insurance industry was the precedent this new rule would set, and worries that this would lead to new "unfunded" benefits by regulators.

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