A leaked draft rule from the Department of Health and Human Services exempting religious groups from the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act was welcomed by church officials and attorneys representing the Little Sisters of the Poor, one group that challenged the mandate at the U.S. Supreme Court.
A federal judge in Texas Dec. 31 blocked a regulation by the Department of Health and Human Services requiring Catholic hospitals and health care providers to perform or provide gender transition services.
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious employers that challenged the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act have been cautiously breathing a sigh of relief since the presidential election.
A Sept. 9 letter from USCCB officials to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stressed that a compromise could effectively be reached in the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive requirement.
Health care got plenty of attention during previous presidential election campaigns, but this time around it is almost like a kid craning to see what is going on while other issues take the front seat.
The Pittsburgh Diocese said Bishop David A. Zubik is making every effort to achieve a swift negotiated solution to the diocese’s dispute with the federal government over religious freedom in relation to the federal contraceptive mandate, as directed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared, contrary to the plain meaning of current federal law, that the California Dept. of Managed Health Care can continue to force all health plans under its jurisdiction to cover elective abortions. The USCCB is calling for an immediate federal legislative remedy.
The U.S. Supreme Court has remanded two Catholic entities’ legal challenges to the federal contraceptive mandate back to the lower courts.
The religious nonprofits challenging their participation in the contraceptive mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) agreed with a U.S. Supreme Court proposal that such coverage be provided through an alternative health care plan without involving the religious employers in a legal brief filed with the court.
Immediately after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Zubik v. Burwell March 23 challenging the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive requirement, the second-guessing began about how the court will rule.
