Richard Doerflinger, the USCCB’s great legislative ace, offers a sobering addendum in the comments to Matt Franck’s post:
One small cavil: The contraceptive mandate policy will not be deferred a year. It will apply this year, as originally planned, to the vast majority of individuals and organizations (except for the very narrow group of “religious employers” who hire and serve chiefly only people of their own faith, etc.). But specifically religious organizations that do not qualify for this narrow exemption may apply for deferred compliance for a year, only if they do not cover such services now. (Some of these organizations have recently discovered, to their chagrin, that their insurance does include these things, having investigated this because of the current controversy. They are out in the cold now, even if they had begun taking steps to exclude the coverage.) Since the mandate will be fully enforced on everyone else in the meantime, the question is whether even the religious groups with the one-year deferral will actually find any health insurer willing to write them a policy.
So, get ready. For the great majority of those affected, implementation begins now sooner than you think.
Update: Richard Doerflinger adds in the comments that, ” The compliance date this year is August 1. So not exactly “now,” but soon. There is time for both legislative and judicial response.”
