Citing the recent US Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) announced that it will no longer be enforcing the contraceptive benefit rule for employers with religious objections.
Current state law in Wisconsin requires companies with insurance plans to cover services including outpatient care, preventive treatment, prescription drugs, and FDA-approved contraceptives prescribed by a healthcare provider. According to OCI, however, the state will now allow employers with religious objections to birth control to opt out of providing coverage. Instead, insurers will have to provide separate contraceptive coverage to those employees who seek the coverage.
An OCI spokesman claimed that the change was required after the Hobby Lobby decision, but legal experts from the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) issued a legal memo last week explaining that “Wisconsin state law is a separate legal requirement on insurance plans in the state that is not directly affected by the Hobby Lobby decision.”
“It appears that the Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance is making up a new standard that does not comply with either state law or federal law,” said Gretchen Borchelt, Senior Counsel and Director of State Reproductive Health Policy at NWLC.
Borchelt also warned that the change in contraceptive coverage could limit accessibility of birth control for some women in Wisconsin. “Putting the burden on the employees by forcing them to seek out and ask for a plan that covers contraception stigmatizes a critical health care service, … raises concerns about privacy, and could be an insurmountable barrier for some women.”
Wisconsin State Representative Chris Taylor (D-Madison) called the OCI announcement another attempt by Republican Governor Scott Walker to inhibit access to birth control. In an interview with Wisconsin Radio Network, Rep. Taylor said that Governor Walker, “had no authority to unilaterally decide that this administration is not going to enforce a law passed democratically through the Legislature.”
In 2011, Governor Walker included a provision in the biennial budget bill that would have repealed the state’s Contraceptive Equity Law, which mandates contraceptive coverage in certain insurance plans. That provision failed along with a legislative attempt in 2013 to create a religious exemption.
Media Resources: Milwaukee Journal Sentinal 7/25/14; RH Reality Check, 7/25/14; Wisconsin Radio Network, 7/24/14; National Women’s Law Center 7/22/14; Feminist Newswire 7/1/14; NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin; Wisconsin Legislative Documents
