romanigyppsyeyes it was reported that birth control for medical reasons will still be covered.
Notre Dame will never have trouble attracting students or employees.
ND is a Catholic institution whose teachings do not include contraceptive but that certainly doesn’t mean employees can’t use them. It just means ND won’t pay for them. Personally I don’t find it shocking for employers not to cover contraceptive. In my day it was your personal responsibility to purchase this. What I do find shocking and shameful is that since the ACA my aging mother can not get some medical treatments she needs covered by her insurance company.
@doschicos, if they’re going to cite the Catholic religion as their reason for making coverage choices, it would be logical for them to cover those drugs only for married men since the single guys shouldn’t be having sex and therefore shouldn’t need ED drugs.
What about those research assistants, assistant professors and PhD candidates who make 25-50K (according to Glassdoor).
ND is a private institution, they can do what they want within the confine of law, but I think many students and employees will let their feet do the talking.
^Assistant professor will be well over 50K, more like 100K, according to Chronicle of Higher Education, about 50% above the average for 4-year private colleges. The number of people they lose for direct financial reasons will be vanishingly small.
Anyway, if it is a matter of religious principle, surely they would gladly suffer any ‘loss’ (drop in ranking, etc.) if it happened?
I think the catholic church is more about money than it is religious principles. Read about what has happened in Ireland. Its shameful. As long as they don’t view the birth control issue as impacting them financially in a significant way, I don’t expect them to change. Even though the number of catholics who follow the church’s teachings on birth control is very small (birth rates anywhere reliable birth control is available drop significantly). There are a lot of issues with sex and punishment involved here.
Dumb. It’s not going to stop students from having sex. It’s only going to cause more students finding themselves with an unwanted pregnancy to get abortions. College students, especially those of the caliber admitted of ND, are not going to ruin the rest of their lives by having a baby before they are even out of college. College aged kids often find themselves in situations where having unprotected sex isn’t uncommon. And I assume the morning after pill won’t be available either.
At least Chicago is fairly close by and abortion services are much more unrestricted and available than in Indiana. I predict a lot of road trips.
I have a D at ND (and another who is applying) and this is very troubling to me. We are not Catholic. The D who is there is on my insurance, so she won’t be impacted and I imagine that’s the case for the majority of students there. And I doubt this is going to keep future employees in academia away if it’s solely based on the cost of bc not being covered. I can see it keeping some away on principle.
If the medical necessity is in fact contraception, as in the case of women who are on certain medications, apparently no exception will be made.
This would also include girls on certain acne meds, and probably all kinds of other things.
They are a private, Catholic institution, and they can do what they want. But what this does is fly in the face of all of those protestations about how people of any faith or none are completely welcome and equal at ND, yada, yada, yada.
And 98% of Catholic women in America have used contraception, according to studies.
To be consistent, they should only pay for ED drugs for married men, AND who have wives of child-bearing age; moreover, their doctor should be able to state that they need the drug specifically and only to conceive children.
To add on to post #30, the Rx should be REQUIRED to state ED drug is Required to conceive children for married man whose wife is of child bearing age and will only use the ED drug during the time said wife is ovulating. Sheesh, it’s upsetting when religion is used to intervene in personal medical decisions.
I was put on birth control pills for many years because I had bad endometriosis and had two surgeries to explore and remove adhesions. I kept wanting to discuss the need to remain on the pill but finally had to switch ob/gyns to find a doc who would discuss it with me and allow me to stop taking it.
@suzy100 I think it’s interesting that your D has found the environment to be generally progressive. As Catholics, my D is considering some Catholic colleges, but we intentionally left ND off the list because the rumor mill had it that ND is a bit dogmatic. This latest action is consistent with what we had heard, rather than what your D is experiencing. I’m glad your D is having such a positive experience.
Birth control prescriptions written for that purpose would qualify in any medical plan as I understand current law. It can not be a coverage condition under the law that the sole purpose of the prescription is for non contraceptive use. As long as a purpose is non contraceptive, it should be covered, assuming there is coverage for the underlying non contraceptive purpose.
For the record, I am Catholic, don’t have any issue with policies that cover birth control meds or ED meds, and also have no problem with Notre Dame being permitted the choice as to what they will cover. I also doubt this will harm them in the least.
@suzy100 To me, I wouldn’t see this as a reason not to send your second child to ND (or at least have her apply there). Especially based on fact that your first child is having a great experience there. I have several friends with kids at ND who are all happy (a couple of their parents went there as well). Though they are all catholics so I don’t have any perspective on how non-catholics view ND (though see your first child). In that group though there are a lot of variation in terms of being catholic. Though if your child can get into ND, there likely will be other very good options as well. Good luck with that process.
I too believe in religious freedoms. I have no problem for private colleges, universities, non-profits, and private businesses to put whatever clauses they want into their rules. If you have a personal stance that conflicts with those beliefs…go somewhere else there are always other options. Heck they could require everyone, students, admin, profs to sign a statement of belief and I wouldn’t have a problem with that either. Why would you choose a belief based organization or attend a belief based universities only to chaff at the policies?
I also never had a problem with golf clubs or fraternal organizations that were men only or women only to be honest. Or businesses that don’t want to make wedding cakes for same sex couples. Not my beliefs, but I don’t have a beef and it doesn’t twist me up in knots. I just think sometimes people waste alot of energy being indignant to be honest. I’d only be indignant about something if there were zero other choices, then I’d be willing to argue whether it is morally and ethically right or wrong.
Based on the use of birth control and pre-marital sex alone, the school would lose a significant portion of its student body. And my guess is staff as well. Reality is you do what the majority of catholics do, you pick and choose. Cafeteria catholic comes to mind. Limit religions to people who follow 100% and you eliminate the religious.
Thanks @saillakeerie, for the good wishes. If she is admitted, and the financial aid is sufficient, then it will be D2’s choice whether she attends, and a whole lotta factors will go into that decision. This step by ND will not go in the plus column for her, though.
@intparent@romanigypsyeyes , as someone who paid over $25K annually for insurance ,co-pays, and prescriptions for years, I am flabbergasted that people are complaining about a ‘$15-$50’/mo prescription. They should be thankful that their employer is covering the vast majority of their medical care (we are). The only thing that has changed is that some of the ND employees must spend $100-$600/yr more on BC. That’s the equivalent of a co-pay change on your prescription plan.
Equating that with some massive,nefarious behavioral change plot is just silly. The net effect is that people will sightly adjust their spending. They are still going to cover doctors visits for BC to get the prescriptions. They will cover all medically necessary prescriptions too. They are just not going to cover the prescriptions for BC. And no one is going to turn down a faculty position because of it, unless somehow, they were not aware that ND is a Catholic university, and one of the most prestigious universities in the country. Would you turn down an ND position because of a few hundred $ difference?