The central mandate of President Barack Obama's decision to require most employers to cover birth control and insurers to offer it at not cost has been law for more than a decade, Nick Baumann reports at Mother Jones.
Despite the longstanding precedent, "no one screamed" until now, said Sara Rosenbaum, a health law expert at George Washington University.
In December 2000, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that companies that provided prescription drugs to their employees but didn't provide birth control were in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prevents discrimination on the basis of sex. That opinion, which the George W. Bush administration did nothing to alter or withdraw when it took office the next month, is still in effect today — and because it relies on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, it applies to all employers with 15 or more employees. Employers that don't offer prescription coverage or don't offer insurance at all are exempt, because they treat men and women equally — but under the EEOC's interpretation of the law, you can't offer other preventative care coverage without offering birth control coverage, too.
"It was, we thought at the time, a fairly straightforward application of Title VII principles," a top former EEOC official who was involved in the decision told Mother Jones. "All of these plans covered Viagra immediately, without thinking, and they were still declining to cover prescription contraceptives. It's a little bit jaw-dropping to see what is going on now … There was some press at the time but we issued guidances that were far, far more controversial."
As the saying goes, "Timing is everything." The right has seized on a 10-year-old law to rally voters against President Obama's Affordable Care Act during an election year. The move represents a major contradiction for Republicans who are trying to undo a measure ushered in by their own leadership simply to win votes.
Read more at Mother Jones.