Saturday's lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal discusses the White House's “accommodation” concerning its decree that all new private insurance plans must cover birth control pills, morning-after pills, and the abortion drug ella—and must cover them free of charge. The Journal writes, “Under the new rule, which the White House stresses is an 'accommodation' and not a compromise, nonprofit religious organizations won't have to directly cover birth control and can opt out. But the insurers they hire to cover their employees can't opt out. If that sounds like a distinction without a difference, odds are you're a rational person.”
The Journal writes that if, say, Notre Dame doesn't choose to include such (free) coverage in the health plans it offers to its employees, “Notre Dame's insurer will . . . be required to offer the benefit as an add-on rider anyway, at no out-of-pocket cost to [the employee], or to any other worker, or in higher premiums for the larger group.” The Journal notes, “The reality, as with all mandated benefits, is that these costs will be borne eventually via higher premiums. The balloon may be squeezed differently over time, but eventually prices will find an equilibrium. Notre Dame will still pay for birth control, even if it is nominally carried by a third-party corporation.”
Link to article:‘No Precedent for the Government Ordering Private Companies to Offer a Product for Free’
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