Written by Don Byrd
Days before the contraception coverage mandate in the Affordable Care Act is scheduled to go into effect, a federal judge in Colorado issued an injunction temporarily halting its application to a small company that objects on religious grounds to providing free access to birth control. Hercules Industries is a private air conditioning firm, mostly owned and operated by a Catholic family who has made their religious beliefs central to the governance of the company. They argue that the government is burdening their religious exercise without following the least restrictive means to do so, in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Because the judge found the government has not proven its is likely to win this argument, he issued the temporary injunction, pending the outcome of the case. Importantly, the injunction applies only to the company in this lawsuit and not to others.
This is an important development because it is the first court to stop enforcement of the controversial provision. Lots of fascinating discussion in the opinion, but below is a snippet from the issue that may be the most significant: can there truly be a compelling government interest (as mandated by RFRA) in requiring free birth control when there are so many exceptions and exemptions to the requirement? (citations removed)
Unlike some other provisions of the ACA…the preventive care coverage mandate does not apply to certain healthcare plans existing on March 23, 2010. This gap in the preventive care coverage mandate is significant. According to government estimates, 191 million Americans belong to plans which may be grandfathered under the ACA. Although there are many requirements for maintaining grandfathered status, if those requirements are met a plan may be grandfathered for an indefinite period of time. In addition to grandfathering under the ACA, the preventive care guidelines exempt certain religious employers from any requirement to cover contraceptive services.The guidelines also contain a temporary enforcement “safe-harbor” for plans sponsored by certain non-profit organizations with religious objections to contraceptive coverage that do not qualify for the religious employer exemption.
…
The government has exempted over 190 million health plan participants and beneficiaries from the preventive care coverage mandate; this massive exemption completely undermines any compelling interest in applying the preventive care coverage mandate to Plaintiffs.
