{"id":396,"date":"2014-07-01T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T19:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/07\/the-most-interesting-thing-about-the-hobby-lobby-discussion-is.html"},"modified":"2014-07-01T19:25:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-01T19:25:00","slug":"the-most-interesting-thing-about-the-hobby-lobby-discussion-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/07\/the-most-interesting-thing-about-the-hobby-lobby-discussion-is.html","title":{"rendered":"The most interesting thing about the Hobby Lobby discussion is . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

No, not that the Democrats are exaggerating the significance of the ruling so that they can push the \u201cWar on Women\u201d storyline. \u00a0Nor, in contrast, the fact that the ruling is fairly narrow by virtue of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act wording that the government has to use the \u201cthe least restrictive means of achieving a compelling governmental interest.\u201d \u00a0See Ann Althouse\u2019s write-up<\/a>, among others, on the topic; she draws a contrast between this and anti-discrimination laws to explain.<\/p>\n

Look, I\u2019m not even going to debate the issue of whether contraception is a \u201cpreventive treatment\u201d and whether that means pregnancy is a disease, or whether it\u2019s a consumer product. <\/p>\n

But everyone\u2019s flipping out: \u00a0\u201cOMG, what if the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses decided it violated their religious principles to cover blood transfusions? \u00a0Companies can now do whatever they want as long as they claim it\u2019s in their religion!\u201d \u00a0(See here<\/a>\u00a0for the becoming-famous Ginsberg line.)<\/p>\n

And it occurred to me that this \u201cworst case scenario\u201d is actually fairly instructive. <\/p>\n

Imagine if there were a significant number of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses running companies, or closely-held corporations, and that they believed that if they provided health care coverage to their employees which included blood transfusions, they\u2019d be enabling a sin. \u00a0I skimmed the article on the topic in Wikipedia<\/a> but it\u2019s not clear to me if they view this as something required only of their adherents, like keeping kosher or observing the Sabbath for Jews, or a general moral code applicable to everyone.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s assume its the latter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still not a problem. \u00a0Blood transfusions are a component of medical treatment \u2014 after an accident, in the course of surgery, and so on. \u00a0It shouldn\u2019t be that difficult to split out the claims value of the blood transfusion component of such surgeries, based on the mountain of data that insurers have available to them. \u00a0Then an insurer could design a standard policy which excludes transfusions, and an additional rider which includes them, and there shouldn\u2019t be any risk of anti-selection in the rider-policies because this is true insurance, for serious medical needs, the cost should be relatively minor, and yet everyone working at a JW-employer should have the common sense to know, when the mailing arrives from the insurance company, to select the \u201cblood transfusion\u201d rider. <\/p>\n

But imagine a \u201ccontraception\u201d rider \u2014 it doesn\u2019t work, does it? \u00a0Who would choose a contraception rider? \u00a0Pretty much only those who know that they\u2019ll be using contraception, and that the contraceptive of their choice is more expensive than average, so that, even with an at-cost policy, they figure they\u2019ll save money. \u00a0In other words, there\u2019ll be an immediate death spiral, as the IUD users sign up but not the generic-pill users.<\/p>\n

Which all just highlights the problem with contraception being a part of an insurance policy, when it\u2019s a known, predictable, and, for most people a managably-small expense. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, not that the Democrats are exaggerating the significance of the ruling so that they can push the \u201cWar on Women\u201d storyline. \u00a0Nor, in contrast, the fact that the ruling is fairly narrow by virtue of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act wording that the government has to use the \u201cthe least restrictive means of achieving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe most interesting thing about the Hobby Lobby discussion is . . .<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No, not that the Democrats are exaggerating the significance of the ruling so that they can push the "War on Women" storyline.  Nor, in contrast, the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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