Opinion: Obama birth control policy compromise ignores patients

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http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/10/10374833-opinion-obama-birth-control-policy-compromise-ignores-patients

What determines coverage in your health insurance plan?

You might think it ought to be based on proven evidence about what works and what does not. If you are a real optimist, you might think coverage is shaped by what patients need and what their doctors think will work. Wrong. In America, insurance coverage is driven by religion and politics.

When it comes to your health care, it's as if you're being told to find a theologian, not a doctor. That is the frightening lesson of the battle over contraceptive coverage.

President Barack Obama threw the Catholic Bishops and Cardinals a smoke-and-mirrors bone Friday on the issue of whether to require religious-affiliated institutions to cover birth control for their employees. Under his revamped plan, religious hospitals and universities employers who see providing birth control as a violation of their faith don't have to pay for it, but if their employees want it they can call a secret hotline to an insurance company who will give them the coverage by amortizing the cost into the price of other services.

The bottom line is, by granting an accommodation on this issue the President shows he can listen, count, remember. But it also should make you nervous that he and his opponents are perfectly willing to ignore what patients say they want and what works in deciding what you can get from a doctor, hospital, nursing home or clinic.

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1. This

You might think it ought to be based on proven evidence about what works and what does not. If you are a real optimist, you might think coverage is shaped by what patients need and what their doctors think will work. Wrong. In America, insurance coverage is driven by religion and politics.

...is an odd point because the President's policy doesn't disavow birth control. In fact, he argued that it does work and mentioned the health benefits and science as factors in his decision. Secondly, the policy doesn't exempt insurance coverage, it specifically states that insurers must provide such services free of charge. The institutions are not the insurance companies. There were already exemptions for certain institutions.

I agree with the ACLU, this should end the issue. In fact, it puts the Catholic Church on the wrong side of the issue.