<p>I agree with emilybee…I have no say in the government dropping bombs on people in other countries. Who am I to say my tax dollars can’t be used for birth control services for people who believe in them?</p>
<p>If a “religious” college or hospital takes federal dollars while engaged in secular activities, they should abide by the rules.</p>
<p>Those who think getting prescription birth control just means going down the street to CVS or say it’s “nothing”…I’m guessing you never had to obtain this yourself.</p>
<p>Birth control pills require a prescription. That means a doctor visit. If the physician or nurse practitioner on the health service at college refuses to help a young woman protect herself from unplanned pregancy (goal is to reduce abortions, right?), then the student needs to:</p>
<p>1) identify an ob/gyn;
2) call for an appointment;
3) figure out how she is going to pay for the appointment and examination;
4) figure out how she is going to get to the office, which may not be close especially on a suburban campus;
5) obtain funds to pay for a cab if there is no public transportation to the office of an ob/gyn with whom she can get an appointment;
6) get to the appointment with the ob/gyn, be examined, and explain she wants prescription birth control;
7) obtain the prescription;
8) identify a pharmacy close by or, if mail order, locate a scanner so she can scan in her prescription to drugstore.com or cvs.com; and
9) obtain the prescription birth control and follow directions to use it properly.</p>
<p>You can say these barriers are together all easily surmountable for a teenager operating alone (I disagree), but they are not “nothing.”</p>
<p>Snowdog–and the beauty of this is, the young woman may be a MARRIED graduate student, entitled (in the church’s eyes) to have sex but not entitled to use birth control. Excuse me?</p>
<p>If this is already the law in 28 states, presumably some of which have catholic institutions other than houses of worship, has there been protest to this concept in the past? I’ve not heard of any, but maybe I’ve been out in la-la land! So this is just about the other 22 states? Not clear. I agree that this is something to consider when selecting a college. Probably not a deal-breaker, but something to talk about. It can be a huge hassle to obtain oral contraceptives in a new city especially if the ‘embarrassment’ factor kicks in. </p>
<p>In my experience, some college kids don’t really see themselves becoming sexually active ahead of time–problematic to say the least…</p>
<p>mini-it would be highly irregular if any organization with more than about 200 employees didn’t self-insure. That doesn’t mean what I think you think it means. Self-insuring means that the premiums collected by a company are what is used to fund claims. They ALL hire an insurance company to administer a plan. For smaller companies they buy into small business plans and the premiums from all the other small businesses are “pooled” to pay claims. Health insurance companies are plan administrators, they are not funding companies for health plans.</p>
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<p>NOT TRUE…they CAN hire someone to administer the plan. OR they can do it themselves. My employer did it themselves.</p>
<p>What I’m hoping will happen at some point is that the flock will stand up to the bully Catholic hierarchy. Conscious - that’s rich. There are plenty of things that should already be keeping them up at night without causing even more harm. Denying birth control or cancelling insurance will result in more abortions and possible deaths due to lack of insurance. Will they church recognize the blood on its hands? </p>
<p>What if they cancel insurance? Then women are forced are use their money to buy birth control - the money from the paycheck from the church. A little Quixotic isn’t it?</p>
<p>“mini-it would be highly irregular if any organization with more than about 200 employees didn’t self-insure. That doesn’t mean what I think you think it means. Self-insuring means that the premiums collected by a company are what is used to fund claims.”</p>
<p>As I said, my wife works for a VERY large Catholic health care system, one of the largest employers in the state, with multiple hospitals, home care and hospice agencies, chaplaincies, etc. in multiple cities, they fund claims, and they provide (fund) full contraceptive coverage to all of their employees. My daughters access birth control pharmaceuticals through the plan. (I know what ERISA and self-insurance means - in the early 1990s, I worked professionally on state-wide health reform while employed by our state board of health.)</p>
<p>I haven’t managed to look up the Catholic Church in my state. My state is one of those that provides no exemptions for churches, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that they provide full contraceptive coverage as well.</p>
<p>We haven’t heard any complaints from either, as far as I am aware. (They do balk at physician-assistant suicide.)</p>
<p>thumper1-your employer went out and secured contracts with medical providers to participate in their insurance plan, issued you an insurance card and the whole 9 yards?? WHY???</p>
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<p>Many large companies self-insure, then hire insurance companies to administer their plans according to their directives. H’s company does this. It’s NOT unusual at all. And H actually works for a company that almost exclusively deals with health care. It’s a company’s way of controlling health care costs.</p>
<p>snowdog:</p>
<p>I still think it’s easy but I made the assumption, I think correctly, that the initial doc visit to get the prescription is more of a one time event and can happen before they ever even get to the college or they could make a visit to a facility that’s not on campus for this event. I thought the question here wasn’t so much about getting the prescription written in the first place but rather, the logistics of getting it filled which isn’t really that difficult.</p>
<p>These people are in college - none of the above should be intellectually insurmountable for them.</p>
<p>So, having looked a bit further afield at several other states, it seem that it is relatively common for very large Catholic health care systems to provide and pay for preventive contraception coverage, and Catholic universities as well. </p>
<p>As i suggested, the number of people actually impacted by this rule may be vanishingly small, and might provide more room for some plans to drop coverage rather than increase it </p>
<p>Again, no one forces Catholics to use contraception services (and if they don’t, then Catholic institutions aren’t paying for them either), just as no one forces Catholics to have 50% more abortions than the Catholic percentage of the population would suggest. I am saddened that so many Catholics (and others) would seem to choose abortion over effective contraceptive services, as it is a much more invasive medical procedure.</p>
<p>teriwtt–I know that and that is what I am asking Thumper about–their way of doing things is NOT the norm. The problem here is that when people say self-insure they think that their company deals with all of the claims, etc. but that is not what it means. They are using terminology incorrectly which leads me to believe they don’t fully understand what it means.</p>
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<p>No, I say that is the “real world”.</p>
<p>But as we discussed on the now-locked thread, Planned Parenthood provides all of those services for free.</p>
<p>But let’s make your post unisex for anyone who gets sick on campus, and as usual, the student health clinic is “full” or not taking appointments until next week:</p>
<p>1) identify an doctor;
2) call for an appointment;
3) figure out how she/he is going to pay for the appointment and examination;
4) figure out how she is going to get to the office, which may not be close especially on a suburban campus;
5) obtain funds to pay for a cab if there is no public transportation to the office of an doctor with whom she can get an appointment;
6) get to the appointment with the doctor, be examined, and explain she wants prescription [strep throat, otitis media];
7) obtain the prescription;
8) identify a pharmacy close by or, if mail order, locate a scanner so she can scan in her prescription to drugstore.com or cvs.com; and
9) obtain the prescription [for illness] and follow directions to use it properly.</p>
<p>Again, real world. Student health clinics are over-priced and under serve.</p>
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<p>And unions tend to hire themselves, or a subsidiary.</p>
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<p>It may not be the norm, but it’s not all that unusual. </p>
<p>Again, not the majority, but very common amongst large companies.</p>
<p>So why would you ask her ‘why’ by stressing with all caps and three question marks?</p>
<p>I think you could assume her benefits come from a large corporation who self-insures and contracts with an insurance company to manage claims.</p>
<p>bluebayou: not sure whether you are a man (yes?) or a woman, but asking for cold medicine and asking an adult in a position of power for birth control pills are not the same thing for a young woman. Not at all.</p>
<p>gladgraddad: your assumption that teenagers plan months ahead to become sexually active is optimistic at best. Do you have a daughter in college? I am not talking about “intellectual” challenges. Young people have financial, physical, and logistical challenges to going off campus and obtaining prescription contraceptives. In the end it’s far easier (until it isn’t…) to just hope it all works out. Telling college-age kids in the 21st century (and yes even in the 20th) to wait for marriage…that’s a nice dream for some people but the statistics show it is just a dream.</p>
<p>snowdog:</p>
<p>If they don’t plan ahead at all then it’s generally problematic but in fairness you said ‘months ahead’. I still think that for the majority of college students having this BC access on campus isn’t critical. If they haven’t made the appointment with a doc to get this prescription prior to arriving then they can get one after they arrive. Most students aren’t chained to the campus and most campuses have some kind of public transportation to areas with businesses although a lot of them have the businesses within walking distances. I don’t think it’s a logistical or physical feat for most college students and if cost is an issue then they can save up for it or take advantage services provided to those with low income.</p>
<p>My kids never used the on campus health center since the reps of them were not good and the colleges had major hospitals attached to them and private doctors available in the areas and they were already covered under my health insurance.</p>
<p>Do you have any colleges in mind where you think it’s be very difficult for one to get to an off campus facility? Worst case, don’t go to the college if it doesn’t meet one’s needs.</p>
<p>So even if the kids are able to get BC at home through their doctors, that leaves all the female employees of the universities and hospitals figuring out a way to pay for birth control. It’s not cheap. </p>
<p>I guess it’s moot now anyway. It was just announced that the President caved and did a work around.</p>
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<p>Why would I assume that her benefits are managed by an insurance company when she specifically said they are not. And as for the WHY??–by trying to do this on your own with out the bargaining power or resources of a health plan administrator is the most expensive, least efficient way to go about providing health insurance for your employees.</p>
<p>cartera45–it isn’t a moot point even if the President is dealing with a workaround because there are a LOT of companies out there that do not pay for contraceptives for women still that are in no way affiliated with any church. It is a choice companies make to keep their costs down and by companies I mean employers, not insurance companies.</p>