World News
Objectionable health insurance laws? Self-insurance gains ground
Published:
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When the California Supreme Court said Catholic Charities of Sacramento may not be exempted from a law requiring employers to include contraceptives in workers' prescription insurance plans, the lone dissenting judge suggested an alternative. Justice Janice Rogers Brown said in the March 1 ruling that religious organizations were left few options by the majority's decision; the 1999 law gives only extremely narrow exemptions for employers who object to providing contraceptives on moral grounds. One possibility, dropping prescription coverage, also would be unacceptable to church-based employers on social justice grounds, Catholic Charities argued in opposing the law. But some church entities around the country have already turned to Brown's other suggestion -- dropping out of the traditional health insurance funding system and self-insuring. As Brown put it, "such employers would not be subject to mandatory prescription coverage, they would not be subject to any of California's more restrictive insurance regulations." That also would apply to similar laws in about 20 states that mandate coverage of contraceptives and any other state requirements that a religious employer finds objectionable.
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