Simple solution to health insurance/contraception controversy.
The federal government via Health and Human Services can offer low to no cost contraception coverage for men (who want vasectomies) and women (who want anything from birth control pills to a tubal ligation) whose employers refuse to offer such services on religious grounds. There could be a token charge for this "special birth control insurance" which will be waived for anyone making less than a certain amount of money.
That way the Catholic Church can not complain that it is being forced to pay for birth control for its employees. And the employees will not lose their freedom of choice.
Employers who do not have a legitimate religious objection will be unable to participate. Since private insurance companies almost always want to cover birth control and abortion (it saves them money, since high risk pregnancy can cost them millions), you will not see many non-religious employers trying to abuse this system, because there will be no cost savings in it for them. A few may attempt to bow to consumer pressure and deny their employees coverage for contraceptive services in order to appeal to certain interest groups. If they do, the federal government will rule that the company dos not have a valid religious objection and the firm will be forced to pay for the federal contraception coverage for its employee or write a private policy that restores contraceptive coverage.
The federal government already has a system in place---or at least it did--to evaluate those who wanted to avoid the draft based upon a religious objection. And the IRS is able to judge which groups meet the definition of being Churches and therefore have tax exempt status. It should be quite simple to have a federal agency determine whether an employer has a valid religious objection. Any attempt by the Catholic Church to complain about the federal government offering its employees federal contraceptive insurance services that it does not want them to have would then be greeted by public derision as violating the separation of Church and State. If the Catholic Church seeks to fire or intimidate employees who sign up for the federal contraceptive coverage, it could then be sued/prosecuted under the Americans with Disabilities Act, with fertility being considered a "disability" that effects only some employees. This makes the Catholic Church "the bad guys".
Yes, I know that many Democrats consider this a line in the sand that Obama must cross in order to "prove himself" committed to a woman's right to choose. However, in a political battle of words between a Church and a politician, the politician will lose. Therefore, the prudent path for Obama is to ignore the Church altogether and take care of the citizens (in this case, the Church employees).
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