NY Archdiocese Has Been Paying Indirectly For Employee Health Care Contraceptive Coverage

The New York Times reported Sunday that despite the leadership of New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan in the fight against requiring religious organizations to cover contraceptive services in their health plans, the New York Archdiocese has been quietly, but reluctantly, indirectly paying for contraceptive coverage for thousands of its unionized employees for over a decade. ArchCare, the Catholic Health Care System, belongs to the League of Voluntary Hospitals and Homes, a multi-employer organization that negotiates on health care coverage with the unions representing its members' workers. ArchCare's workers belong to 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East and get the same health care coverage as employees of over 100 other nonprofit nursing homes and hospitals in the New York area. ArchCare pays approximately 25% of each employee's base pay into the union's National Benefits Fund.  That fund pays for employees' insurance.