Chicagoland

Catholic institutions protest HHS mandate

By Michelle Martin | Staff writer
Sunday, February 26, 2012

If Catholic hospitals, universities and social service providers aren’t really part of the church, well, that’s news to them.

“We don’t consider ourselves as separate from the church,” said Patrick Cacchione, executive director of the Illinois Catholic Association, which represents Catholic hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers. “We operate alongside the bishops, and we operate under the bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives (for Health Care Services). For them to tell us we’re not Catholic, we find that offensive.”

The idea that some Catholic institutions are not really part of the church came in regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Jan. 20. The regulations would require entities such as Catholic hospitals and universities to provide contraceptives — including those that could prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg and are seen as inducing early abortions — and sterilization procedures free of charge as part of any employee health insurance plan.

The government included a narrow exception for religious organizations that preach to, employ and serve their own believers, but not religiously owned or sponsored institutions such as hospitals or colleges that hire and serve people outside their own faiths.

Wider exemption needed

“The key ruling that we take issue with is that the mandate, without a broader ‘religious employer’ exception, constitutes an unprecedented attack on the religious liberty of Catholic — and other religious — institutions who have served the common good of our country since its founding, a founding based upon the very notion of religious freedom now at stake,” said a statement from Loyola University Chicago. “This misguided decision on the part of the Department of Health and Human Services would force our institution to violate well-known, wellestablished, and, until now, wellprotected moral commitments. In good conscience, we cannot abide by such a law as it stands. We are currently in conversation with our colleagues to plan further action toward correcting this erroneous decision.”

While Catholic institutions might be most affected by the birth control rules, representatives of other faiths, including Baptist, Lutheran and Jewish leaders, have also protested that the rules violate the free exercise of religion.

Presence Health, as Provena Health-Resurrection Health Care will now be known, has not issued its own statement on the regulations, but spokesman Brian Crawford says it agrees with the Catholic Health Association’s initial position, which expressed disappointment with the regulations.

A Feb. 10 adjustment to the original regulations that would allow religious entities to opt out of paying for birth control coverage — but would require their insurance companies to reach out to employees and offer it for free — is nothing but a smokescreen, Cacchione said.

While national Catholic Health Association’s reaction to the adjustment was initially positive, members of the Illinois CHA were more wary, he said. On Feb. 13, the national Catholic Health Association said it was reviewing the details of the new rules.

“It’s just a shell game,” Cacchione said. “They are just using our money to provide services which we find immoral through a third person. The adjustment doesn’t come close to satisfying us.”

It also doesn’t address the conundrum faced by large Catholic institutions insuring themselves. Many hospitals and health care systems took that step to avoid falling under an Illinois state law that requires employers that purchase insurance to include contraceptive coverage.

Because of that state law, some area Catholic universities that do not self-insure already provide some coverage of contraception. At DePaul University, employee health plans cover prescription contraceptives, according to Robin Florzak, interim assistant vice president in the Office of Public Relations and Communications, and students can buy optional contraceptive coverage in accordance with state and federal law.

However, the university stands with Catholic Health Association in its “disappointment ‘that the definition of a religious employer was not broadened’ to encompass Catholic educational and other institutions in the new federal regulations for health insurance plans,” Florzak said in an email statement.

Could end up in court

Because the issue boils down to interpretation of the freedom of religion clause in the first amendment, and because lawsuits have already been filed by some Catholic institutions, many people expect it will end up being settled by the courts, said Robert Gilligan, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois.

Cacchione agreed that the health care institutions likely are not going to get a resolution they can agree with from the administration, so they must turn their attention to the judicial and legislative branches of government. The association sent its members a sample letter to send to their representatives urging Congress to take action against the HHS mandate. The letter reads in part:

“We cannot comply with this unjust law. ... This order reduces the church to a private club, destroying her public mission in society. Our Catholic hospitals and social service agencies have served all members of our communities, regardless of race, gender, creed or ability to pay for over a century. To put that at risk now is unconscionable.”

Gilligan, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, said the conference is asking all Catholics to join the letter-writing campaign seeking new laws that would override the administration’s regulations. A sample letter is at www.catholicconferenceofillinois.org/newsandlegislativeupdates.asp#145.

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