I didn’t really want to wade into the contraception versus Catholic hierarchy debate because, as a person who was raised Catholic and well aware that the vast majority of Catholics used birth control (only a couple of my friends came from families even half as large as my grandmother’s 10-kid brood), I knew that it was a pretty typical tempest in a teacup. The celibate men who make up the Catholic hierarchy hate birth control, mainstream Catholics don’t, and life goes on. What has changed this dynamic, however, to something supremely idiotic, is the legislation put forward by Republicans to allow any employer to refuse to provide any coverage that goes against their “religious beliefs and moral convictions”. Oklahoma legislators worried about religious laws unduly interfering with our country, take note.
I, generally, believe that health insurance coverage should consider things like efficacy, safety, cost, side effects, research, and fairness. Apparently, some people, including those elected to the U.S. Senate, believe that coverage should consider the moral and religious beliefs of the owner of a particular business. It only takes half a second to imagine the bizarre ways in which this could go horribly, horribly wrong. You don’t need to pick on Muslims; plenty of religions have prohibitions on different medical treatments. As Yglesias says, can we imagine anybody actually standing up for these kinds of religiously-justified denials of health care? Is that the general principle conservatives really want to fight for?
More broadly, however, I am offended by a completely non-religious aspect to this debate: why should my health care depend one bit on the whims of my employer, be they religious whims or not religious? If I work for the mythical large private firm, say Cargill, why should a single or small group of owners be able to dictate the health care coverage of every employee? This is yet another reason why I believe in totally decoupling health insurance from employment. Not only would it make things more fair, no employer would ever have to worry about covering birth control for their employees again! Sure, the Catholic Church could argue against contraception as they always do, but those Catholic hospitals would not be paying for it: people would be buying their insurance from private companies, co-ops, the government, whomever.
There are some things that you just grow up with and never give a second though because it’s so “natural”. The way health care is treated in this country as an employment benefit is one of those things. Hopefully, this debate, as well as the argument that employers have a right to deny health care coverage to their employees for their own personal beliefs, will cause people to stand up and rethink how we are doing things.