The case, which has no bearing on the broader fate of the healthcare law, will determine whether some companies will be exempted from the contraception coverage requirement.
As he ejaculated in oral argument after grilling the government attorney about the cost to the government of providing the services should the plaintiffs be exempted from furnishing the coverage, "You're talking about, what, three or four birth controls, not all of them, just those that are abortifacient".
Their policies might be exempted from the new standards, but the coverage might not be viable for long because insurers could not add benefits or enroll additional people in noncompliant policies.
They would thus be exempted from the mandate to have coverage, and their employers would be exempted from the penalty for not providing it.
And if a worker is exempted from the mandate to have coverage, his employer is exempted from the $2,000 penalty ($3,000 in some cases) for not providing health coverage.
Administration officials tried to address some objections on Friday by proposing a new definition of "religious employers" that could be exempted from the requirement to provide contraceptive coverage.
The bishops said the proposal seemed to address part of their concern about the definition of religious employers who could be exempted from the requirement to offer contraceptive coverage at no charge to employees.
If a person has to spend more than 8percentt of his income to get coverage, he is exempted from the mandate.
Without them, many more consumers would be unable to afford coverage and could be exempted from the "individual mandate" to have insurance.
Employers with religious objections can be exempted from the law, as can companies that provide health coverage to less than 50 employees.
