Religious Restrictions

The undersigned organizations, representing millions of health care consumers, patients and providers, strongly supported passage of the Affordable Care Act and are working to protect the Act from efforts to undermine or repeal it. To that end, we are writing in opposition to the religious employer exemption issued as an Interim Final Rule on August 3, 2011, to the requirement that all new health insurance plans provide coverage for contraceptives without cost-sharing, and to urge you to reject calls to deny additional women the coverage they need.

In April 2010, the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center in southern Arizona entered into an affiliation with a Catholic health system, and agreed to stop providing comprehensive reproductive health services.  The Center filed this complaint with Arizona Attorney General’s Office, alleging that the Board violated its duty to the community when it entered into a deal that limited access to health care.  We are pleased to report that while the complaint was pending, the Board of the Hospital decided to end the affiliation, restoring comprehensive health care access to this rural community.