The Contraception Red Herring

Matt Miller writes about where the real issue around the whole contraception coverage in health insurance plans actually is:

"It’s important not to let this contraception clash pass without understanding the true source of the problem. It’s not President Obama’s debauched liberal drive to shower teens with condoms and morning-after pills. It’s not the bishops’ urge to enforce a moral code from which most of their flock dissents. A sane America would never deny women who work for Catholic employers access to the contraception that every other health plan offers — but it also wouldn’t force Catholic employers to offer coverage that violates their beliefs.

Instead, a sane America would solve this whole problem by moving into the 21st century and making sure people can buy group health coverage on their own and not tied to their employers."

Getting rid of employer-based coverage was one of the principles of the Wyden-Bennett Bill as well. A lot has been said about improving the Affordable Care Act. Nothing would make me happier than opening up the health insurance exchanges to all Americans and concurrently eliminating the requirement for employers to provide health insurance to employees. This whole contraception issue would never have come up if that had been done from the beginning.