By Gregory Curfman
Within the coming months, the constitutional right to abortion, which has been in place for nearly 50 years, is likely to be overturned.
In this light, it is more crucial than ever that women have unfettered access to contraception at no charge. Accordingly, the Biden Administration should act now to return the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraceptive coverage mandate to its status originally intended by Congress in 2010.
By Nicolas Terry
Recorded at the 2019 annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools during a panel reviewing the year in health care financing, this episode features a talk by Professor John Cogan from the University of Connecticut School of Law. Professor Cogan focuses his research and teaching on health care organizations and finance, health law and policy, federal health programs, health care fraud and abuse, and health insurance law. He is the co-author of a treatise on Medicare and Medicaid bankruptcy issues, as well as the author of numerous scholarly articles on a range of health insurance topics, including the Affordable Care Act and HIPAA. In this talk Professor Cogan discussed first, Medicaid: including expansion, work requirements, and the latest court decisions; second, Section 1557 and the proposed civil rights regulations; and third, the DeOtte v. Azar case and the resultant contraceptive mandate mess.
The Week in Health Law Podcast from Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in health law and policy. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts or Google Play, listen at Stitcher Radio, Spotify, Tunein or Podbean.
Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find me on Twitter @nicolasterry and @WeekInHealthLaw.
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By Elizabeth Sepper and John Aloysius Cogan, Jr.
Known for his national injunctions of federal legislation, district court judge Reed O’Connor is at it again. In DeOtte v. Azar [PDF], he issued a permanent injunction granting religious exemptions to two nationwide classes that object to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. Judge O’Connor’s decision is notable for both its expansion of religious exemptions—in contradiction of eight out of nine appellate courts to consider the issue—and its casual disregard for the realities of health insurance markets.
DeOtte is the latest in a series of lawsuits pitting the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which bars the federal government from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of religion, against the ACA’s mandate that insurance plans cover FDA-approved contraceptives.
Initially, under the mandate, churches were exempt and religious non-profit employers—like hospitals and universities—received an accommodation. So long as non-profits gave notice of their objection, their plans could exclude contraception. Their employees then would receive contraception coverage through the insurance company or health plan administrator. In 2014, the Supreme Court extended the accommodation to closely held for-profit corporations in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Inc. Read More