What has brought us here is about student health insurance, but it’s bigger than student health insurance,” Chelsen said, according to a recording of the session obtained by the Tribune.
Assignment 8
Several institutions, including the craft store Hobby Lobby and Wheaton College in suburban Chicago, have opted to decline birth control coverage to their employees or student because birth control use violates the religious principles of the governing organization. In the case of Wheaton College, the college has decided to end all student health care coverage in order to avoid violating the regulations of the Affordable Care Act. (See article below.)
In your opinion, are these institutions behaving ethically? (There is no RIGHT answer! You will graded on the strength of your thinking and writing, not on the position you take.)
Right a persuasive essay of at least 800 words that outlines your opinion on the ethics of this controversy. Use at least 2 resources to support your positions.
Grading Rubric
Possible points Student points
Your essay clearly delineates the ethical dilemmas involved. 30
Your position is supported by at least 2 resources, and is at least 800 words long. 20
Your writing is clear and persuasive. 20
You demonstrated a consistent command of sentence boundaries and spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and usage conventions. Although minor errors may be evident, they do not detract from the fluency of the writing or the clarity of the essay. 20
Your resources are cited according to APA guidelines 10
100
Wheaton College ends coverage amid fight against birth control mandate
July 28, 2015
Wheaton College is ending health care coverage for more than 700 undergraduate and graduate students, about a quarter of the student body, to avoid complying with the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive rules.
(Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)
By Manya Brachear Pashman Chicago Tribune contact the reporter
No more health insurance, Wheaton tells students
Taking a firm stand against Obamacare’s controversial contraception mandate, Wheaton College on Friday will stop providing any health insurance for students.
The decision, announced to students July 10, will halt health care coverage for about a quarter of the college’s 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students, forcing them to shop for other plans just weeks before their coverage ends.
One of the most hotly debated elements of the Affordable Care Act has been the requirement for insurance plans to include base coverage for birth control. Wheaton College was among dozens of Christian nonprofits, as well as businesses such as Hobby Lobby, that argued the mandate was an assault on religious freedom. The college appears to be one of the first to move its protracted legal battle from the courtroom to campus.
Wheaton College in suburban Chicago says it will stop offering health insurance plans to students to avoid providing birth control coverage mandated by the Affordable Care Act. (WGN-TV)
During an information session for students last week that was streamed live online, Paul Chelsen, Wheaton’s vice president of student development, said he regretted the last-minute decision and the hardship it brings.
“What has brought us here is about student health insurance, but it’s bigger than student health insurance,” Chelsen said, according to a recording of the session obtained by the Tribune. “What really breaks my heart is that there are real people that are affected by our decision. But if we don’t win this case, the implications down the road in terms of what the government will tell us what we can and cannot do will be potentially more significant.”
“I acknowledge that students have been hurt by this decision and I regret that,” he added.
Officials at the west suburban evangelical school said a compromise provision that would require them to notify the government of their religious objections would prompt the school’s insurance carrier to provide the coverage directly to students. Pulling the trigger on that action, and providing the health care plan in the first place, would force Wheaton to violate its religious beliefs, officials said.
“When you order somebody to provide something for the beneficiaries of my plan, you are using my plan,” said Mark Rienzi, a lawyer for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based law firm representing Wheaton. “For the government to do that is to effectively change the terms of the plan.”
Rienzi said it was not enough that the carrier would provide the emergency contraception and that it would be made clear that Wheaton did not condone the services.
“That’s moral analysis, and Wheaton College doesn’t feel that way,” he said. “It’s very reasonable not to feel that way. The government insists it’s not creating new insurance policies. It’s riding on existing insurance policies.”
While the Roman Catholic Church objects to all forms of contraception, many Protestant institutions do not mind covering several forms of birth control, including pills and sterilization procedures.
But methods such as intrauterine devices and FDA-approved morning-after pills that prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus would violate Wheaton’s religious principles because some evangelical Christians equate those processes to abortion.
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