Thursday, September 18, 2014

Catholic Non-Profits Object To Newly Revised Contraceptive Mandate Rules

As reported yesterday by the Southwest Florida News-Press, Catholic non-profit instituitons have signaled their dissatisfaction with the Interim Final Rules under the Affordable Care Act issued last month in an attempt to meet objections to the contraceptive coverage mandate. (See prior posting.) In a Motion for Preliminary Injunction (full text) filed last week by the Becket Fund on behalf of Ave Maria University, the non-profit Catholic college takes issue with the government's claim that the new rules are consistent with the Supreme Court's order in the Wheaton College case:
The augmented rule demands far more than what the Supreme Court required in Wheaton, and, in fact, is substantively indistinguishable from the original rule that the Wheaton Court enjoined. Rather than simply requiring notice that Ave Maria is a religious nonprofit with a religious objection, the augmented rule would require Ave Marie to provide its insurance company’s name and contact information for the specific purpose of allowing HHS to issue a notice requiring the insurer to provide the exact same items through Ave Maria’s healthcare plan as if Ave Maria had given the insurer Form 700 directly. 
Simply routing the form through HHS is a distinction without a difference....