Catholic Health Care Group Opposes Proposed Contraception Mandate Compromise

Last Friday, the Catholic Health Association (CHA), which represents more than 2000 Catholic health care organizations and facilities, submitted a comment letter (full text) to the Department of Health and Human Services taking issue with the Obama administration's proposed compromise to deal with objections of religious organizations to the mandate that health insurance policies cover contraceptive services. CHA's letter has attracted a good deal of press attention (Washington Post; National Catholic Register) because CHA's support was important in the original 2009 passage of the Affordable Care Act (see prior posting) and because CHA president Sister Carol Keehan had initially expressed openness to the compromise on contraception coverage.  CHA now proposes a broad exemption from the contraception coverage mandate for all churches, and organizations associated with churches.  It suggests that if the government insists that employees of such organizations have contraception coverage, it should be paid for by the government and provided "without any direct or indirect involvement of religious employers." [Thanks to Steven H. Sholk for the lead.]