In bizarre twist, some WI Catholic dioceses may soon have to pay for contraception

DEE J. HALL | Wisconsin State Journal | dhall@madison.com | 608-252-6132 madison.com | Posted: Saturday, March 10, 2012 6:30 am

In August, when the new federal mandate that insurance plans offer free contraceptive services kicks in, it will save women in Wisconsin hundreds and perhaps thousands of dollars. But it also adds fuel to a long-simmering debate over religious freedom in the state. And the effect on Catholics in Wisconsin could be surprising. Under the federal mandate, the Madison Catholic Diocese, which contracts with a private insurance company, would be exempt from paying for birth control for its employees.

But dioceses in the rest of the state, some of which moved to self insurance specifically to avoid a similar state mandate two years ago, may fall under the federal mandate and be forced to provide free birth control. In January, when President Barack Obama announced final rules for implementing the contraception requirement under the federal Affordable Care Act, religious groups led by the Catholic Church protested, saying it could force them to pay for health care for their employees that they find morally objectionable.

Last month, the president announced a compromise, saying that for religious institutions that object, the cost and implementation of the birth-control mandate would be borne by insurance companies. But in the four dioceses outside of Madison that insure their workers themselves, that concession could be largely meaningless since they are in effect the insurance companies, said John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.

Does that mean the church will be forced to pay for artificial birth control that it believes is "gravely wrong?" "That's the $64,000 question," Huebscher said. In a March 2 letter, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, raised a similar concern about the fact that many dioceses self insure. Obama's compromise, he wrote, "solved little and complicated a lot."

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