Hobby Lobby Wants to Stop Doctors From Talking to Its Employees About Contraception

[DonViejo]

By Amanda Marcotte

Arguments in front of the Supreme Court start next week in the Hobby Lobby case. Hobby Lobby is suing for a religious exemption from the Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring that employer-provided health insurance cover contraception. Most of the coverage of the case has focused on Hobby Lobby's objection to the contraception itself and how, if the business prevails, its employees will have to pay out of pocket for things like birth control pills or IUDs. But, as Tara Culp-Ressler at ThinkProgress explained on Wednesday, Hobby Lobby and their co-plaintiff, Conestoga Wood Specialties, are also objecting to insurance plans covering "related education and counseling" for contraception. In other words, these for-profit businesses aren't just asking their female employees to pay for their own contraception, even though they are already paying for their own contraception by paying for their insurance coverage. These companies want to elbow their way into doctor's offices and call the shots on what doctors can and cannot say to Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood employees.

"Essentially, if Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood are successful, they’ll win the right to refuse to extend coverage for doctor’s visits that include discussion about certain forms of contraception, like IUDs or the morning after pill," Culp-Ressler writes. That would probably be something insurance companies could deal with if there was such thing as a specialized doctor's appointment to only discuss contraception. In the real world, however, most women receive their contraception counseling at general gynecological appointments or annual checkups. You go in, get your blood taken, get a Pap smear, get your breasts squeezed, and then your doctor asks what you use for contraception, and you walk out with a prescription in hand. If Hobby Lobby has its way, by merely acknowledging the birth control pill during that appointment, your doctor would render your entire visit ineligible for coverage by your health care plan.

"This isn't something that generally is billed separately from a health care visit," Adam Sonfield, a senior public policy associate for the Guttmacher Institute, explained to me over the phone. "As far as we can tell, the only way to implement this objection would be to say that if your visit is going to be reimbursed by your health care plan, then your doctor can't talk to you about certain topics your employer objects to."

It's unclear if the plaintiffs just haven't considered how unworkable their ask is, or if marginalizing contraception consultation by making it too fraught to be discussed during a standard doctor's appointment is the intention here. Either way, it demonstrates how radically intrusive the demands of these companies are. This isn't just a matter of wanting to "opt out" of paying for a standard service that insurance plans usually cover. This is about giving your employer broad powers to butt into your private business, including micromanaging what you can and cannot discuss with your doctor.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/20/_hobby_lobby_doesn_t_just_want_to_avoid_covering_contraception_it_wants.html?

[liberal N proud]

1. Hobby Lobby wants to control your zipper.

[Historic NY]

2. Remember when Republicans preached about government coming between

you and your doctor....well its Republican owned business's not the government.

[Dawson Leery]

3. There is a Hobby Lobby in East Haven, CT. I will never shop there.

[llmart]

4. Hobby Lobby is nothing but cheap crap from China.

Honestly, I went in a store with a friend one time (believe me when I say I would never have been interested in going in one of these stores by myself) and could not believe who would find any of that crap beautiful enough to put in their homes. Well, maybe the Honey Boo Boos of the country would, but really?

[truth2power]

8. Same here. There's a Hobby Lobby near me, but I wouldn't shop there. Whackos! n/t

[CBHagman]

13. I hope you will also tell them why.

Bad press and the threat of economic impact are going to be necessary in this case. I can't believe we're having to deal with this issue in 2014.

[CrispyQ]

18. I sent a snail mail letter to my local store.

I used to spend about $100 a month there - they actually have a sewing section! Alas, not anymore. I hope others do the same.

I can't believe we're still fighting this issue too.

[CBHagman]

19. The dollar figure puts it in perspective.

I used to work in retail too, though nothing on the order of a Hobby Lobby, and the one thing you need to keep is the paying customer, especially the regulars.

[albino65]

5. Blatant violation of HIPAA privacy n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

6. And I'd like to mention that Hobby Lobby is going out of business

in our area. Seems that nobody likes to shop there. I'm holding back the tears as I type.

[valerief]

7. I'm getting sick of these frat boy Hobby Lobby boys' jokes. nt

[mrmpa]

9. Part of this "need" by Hobby Lobby...............

to control women's bodies is I think, a campaign by the right to try and get what they want via businesses and health insurances if they can't get it through legislation.

They are trying to hit women any and everywhere they can. I can't see how a business would be allowed to infringe upon the rights of an individual. How can they do something that disallows the rights of American citizens?

[Half-Century Man]

10. I see it as the rich, thinking that since they so graciously let us work for them

should have a say( nay, the controlling word) on the entirety of our lives. It is about religious belief the same way rape is about sex.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

11. What is Hobby Lobby?

[DonViejo]

12. Hobby store...

selling hobby supplies, e.g., artificial flowers for making bouquets, molds for making clay figures, picture frames, styrofoam (wreaths, Xmas trees, squares, ovals, etc).

Does that help?

[Shrike47]

14. It's like Michael's, if that helps any.

Craft supplies.

[DallasNE]

15. Mind Boggling

Hobby Lobby wants a permanent gag order issued to doctors when talking to a woman covered by Hobby Lobby insurance. This would not apply to just employees of Hobby Lobby as this article implies but also to the spouse and daughter of a Hobby Lobby employee and even in some cases even to the ex-wife of an employee. Now how would a doctor of a college student have a clue that her dad that lived a thousand miles away had her insurance coverage. There are a lot more college towns than towns with a Hobby Lobby. The troubling part is that in Citizens United the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people and that triggered lawsuits such as Hobby Lobby. Now if the Court allows this they will be expanding the Citizens United decision to say that not only are corporations people but that they are superior to actual people in a master-slave type of relationship. Can they really go that far? Don't count out this Supreme Court as they are fully capable of making mind boggling decisions.

[Walk away]

16. They should change the name of the company to Hobby Lobotomy.

Punch the clock and deactivate your brain.

[ReRe]

17. Hobby Lobby looks like a cult...

... they are mostly staffed by women in their reproductive years. One of these days, their staff will all be pregnant. Wonder how that will work out for them? They'll have to provide a large restroom with plenty of stalls, for all the women with morning sickness. Some pregnant women faint when they are pregnant.

Ha... and you thought it was bad when the insurance company got between you and your doctor? This will be the employer getting between their employees and their doctor.

is going on in this country? I think it's high time to find a state to put all the religious fundamentalists in. And the first peep out of their mouth about wanting to cede from the Union, we give them their wish.