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MARCH 19, 2012 (Reuters) - The Obama administration began laying out its blueprint last week for accommodating the moral concerns of religious institutions that oppose its policy of requiring free coverage for women's contraceptives through employer-sponsored health plans.
The move came a month after the White House tried to calm a furor among Roman Catholic bishops and other social conservatives by announcing it would not require church-run hospitals, universities and charities to foot the bill for birth control coverage but instead shift the burden to insurers.
The administration released preliminary regulatory language for an eventual rule that addressed a number of issues, including a yet-to-be-solved problem of religious institutions that provide their own health insurance.
The action's bearing on birth control and religious freedom places it at the center of incendiary issues that have moved to the forefront of the election campaign for control of the White House and Congress.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has spearheaded opposition to Obama contraceptives policies, said it would examine the administration's new proposed language to see if it met its demands.
But conference spokeswoman Sister Mary Ann Walsh chided the administration for releasing the document late on a Friday as Catholic leaders prepared to observe St. Patrick's Day last Saturday.
The proposal provoked anger from some religious groups.
"This does nothing," said Michael O'Dea, executive director of the Christus Medicus Foundation, which promotes Christian health care. "It's bogus."
The Department of Health and Human Services' notice of rulemaking gave special emphasis to protections for self-insured religious institutions that have been a prime concern for Roman Catholic authorities.
"Our principle is that the religious employer who's self-insured will not be paying for this coverage, full stop," an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity told reporters in a conference call.
The notice calls for third-party administrators including insurers to handle contraceptive coverage for self-insured groups.
Costs would be covered through a range of options unrelated to the employer, including drug rebates, reinsurance credits and multistate insurance plans.
The public will have 90 days to comment on the notice.
© 2011 Thomson Reuters.
