Codey
gets coverage bill on birth control
Employers would pay cost of
prescribed contraception
Tuesday, December 13, 2005 • BY RICK HEPP •
Star-Ledger Staff
Employer health plans that offer drug
coverage would have to pay for doctor-prescribed
contraception under a bill headed to acting Gov. Richard
Codey for his signature.
The controversial bill (A292) excludes
churches or religious schools from having to pay for
contraception if it conflicts with the employer's "bona fide
religious beliefs and practices."
Those employers, however, cannot exclude
coverage for contraceptives that are necessary to "preserve
the life or health" of the employee. And the exemption does
not extend to church-run hospitals or other
organizations.
The Assembly passed the bill by a 57-14
margin yesterday, more than a year after the Senate passed
similar legislation by a 27-11 vote. It now goes to Codey,
who as Senate president voted for the proposal.
Legislators estimate the bill will cost
state government as much as $1.4 million annually to cover
its female employees' contraceptive prescriptions. Local
government agencies could be faced with costs as high as
$4.8 million to cover their employees'
prescriptions.
Representatives from Planned Parenthood
and the ACLU have praised the contraception coverage bill,
calling it "an issue of basic fairness and
equity."
The National Organization for Women of
New Jersey -- which held a demonstration in front of the
Statehouse in Trenton before yesterday's vote -- points out
that employer health plans typically cover drugs that help
erectile dysfunction.
NOW-NJ president Suzannah Porter said the
group fought to prevent amendments that would have allowed
large religiously affiliated employers, such as hospitals,
to deny the benefit to workers. She said many workers in
such institutions do not practice the same religion as the
employer.
"We are done compromising," Porter told
the demonstrators. "We are the majority of the voters and we
will have our day."
The New Jersey Catholic Conference, which
represents the various dioceses in the state, had fought to
get other church ministries, such as Catholic Charities and
Catholic-run hospitals, excluded from the bill because it
would force them to go against the church's
teachings.
Calling it "one of the most serious
invasions of church autonomy imaginable," the conference
threatened that the bill's passage could force those
institutions to cancel prescription drug coverage for their
employees. New Jersey Catholic Conference Executive Director
William F. Bolan Jr. was unavailable last night for comment
on the legislation's passage.
New Jersey is not alone in trying to make
employers pay for prescribed contraception. Legislation is
being considered in states all across the country and in
Congress, to specifically mandate contraceptive equity in
health insurance coverage. If the bill is signed by Codey,
New Jersey would become the 23rd state to enact such
provisions, according to the National Women's Law
Center.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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