Trumps proposal to allow companies to deny birth control coverage will cost women more
The Trump administration is poised to issue a rule unwinding an Obama-era requirement that employee health benefits include contraception, which will spark a fresh round of litigation over an issue that has been before courts for six years.
Federal health officials are expected to finalize a regulation that would allow employers with religious or moral objections to birth control to omit coverage for contraception from their workers plans, according to two people familiar with its contents. The regulation closely mirrors an earlier, leaked draft, they said.
The Supreme Court has ruled, in a case brought by the arts-and-crafts chain Hobby Lobby, that closely held private companies can invoke religious objections to avoid covering contraception.
The Trump administration rule would allow a much broader set of employers to opt out of offering coverage for birth control, making moot a workaround designed by the Obama administration that allowed women in some cases to obtain coverage even if their employers had declined to offer it directly.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-administration-plans-to-allow-more-employers-an-out-from-offering-birth-control-coverage-2017-08-16