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CNS News...
Sebelius:
Decrease in Human Beings Will Cover Cost of Contraception Mandate
By Fred
Lucas
March 1,
2012
Health and
Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Nov. 14, 2011 that
$1
billion in health care grants were a way of ‘sparking’ the U.S.
economy.
(CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
(CNSNews.com)
– Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a House
panel
Thursday that a reduction in the number of human beings born in the
United
States will compensate employers and insurers for the cost of complying
with the new HHS
mandate that will
require all health-care plans to cover sterilizations and all
FDA-approved
contraceptives, including those that cause abortions.
“The
reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of
contraception,” Sebelius said. She went on to say the estimated cost is
“down
not up.”
Sebelius
took questions from the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on
Health about
President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal.
Because the
Catholic church teaches that sterilization, contraception or abortion
are wrong
and that Catholics must not be inolved in them, the regulation forces
Catholics--and members of other religious denominations that share
those views--to
act against the teachings of their faith. Numerous lawsuits have
already been
asserting that the rule violates the First Amendment’s guarantee to the
free
exercise of religion. Many of the nation’s Catholic bishops have
published
letters saying: “We cannot--we will not--comply with this unjust law.”
Sebelius,
however, insisted that the mandate “upholds religious liberty.”
“The rule
which we intend to promulgate in the near future around implementation
will
require insurance companies, not a religious employer, but the
insurance
company to provide coverage for contraceptives,” Sebelius told the
subcommittee.
The
Catholic bishops have called for the regulation to be rescinded in its
entirety, so that no employer, insurer or individual is forced to act
against
his or her conscience.
During the
subcommittee hearing, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) said that contraception
provided
by insurance companies to people employed by religious organizations
under the
future form of the rule Sebelius described would not be was not free.
“Who pays
for it? There’s no such thing as a free service,” Murphy asked.
Sebelius
responded that that is not the case with insurance.
“The
reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for cost of
contraception,”
Sebelius answered.
Murphy
expressed surprise by the answer.
“So you are
saying, by not having babies born, we are going to save money on health
care?”
Murphy asked.
Sebelius
replied, “Providing contraception is a critical preventive health
benefit for
women and for their children.”
Murphy
again sought clarification.
“Not having
babies born is a critical benefit. This is absolutely amazing to me. I
yield
back,” he said.
Sebelius
responded, “Family planning is a critical health benefit in this
country,
according to the Institute of Medicine.”
Rep. Brett
Guthrie (R-Ky.), a member of the subcommittee, said after the hearing
that if
mandating contraception saves money there shouldn’t be a need for a
mandate.
“Their
argument is this: Health insurance companies will offer it for free
because
they make money. You reduce the number of people getting pregnant
therefore you
reduce the cost of pregnancy, or low birth weight pregnancies or other
kind of
pregnancies,” Guthrie told CNSNews.com.
“If you
think about it, why don’t health insurance companies provide it now if
the
argument is health insurance companies are going to make a lot of
money? If the
health insurance companies were really acting in their own best
interest, they
would be giving these pills out for free, if it really saved money,”
Guthrie
added.
Despite the
controversy over whether the mandate is constitutional, Sebelius told
Rep.
Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) during the hearing that the administration
never
sought a legal opinion about the regulation from the Department of
Justice.
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