As a victorious Bush administration looks to push favored policies such as faith-based initiatives, a new health-insurance plan becomes available in Illinois for federal workers wanting coverage that meshes with their religious beliefs.
The enrollment period for the plan, which has sparked debate in the health-care community about the appropriate divide between church and state, opens Monday for federal employees in 27 Downstate counties. Those federal workers will have the option to enroll in an insurance plan that does not cover contraceptives, fertility treatment or abortions.
It is the first such plan in the nation offered to federal workers, and it will be aimed at Catholics.
Proponents of the plan, which offers low-cost, high-deductible coverage, say it provides a revolutionary choice in health care, allowing subscribers to select coverage that is in sync with their faith. Opponents see it as a move to extend religious influence and values to a new arena. They are criticizing the administration for supporting a program that limits reproductive health care.
"It's inappropriate for federal dollars to subsidize a plan that is blatantly designed to foster one religion's point of view," said Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "This is just another part of the Bush administration's attacks on access to family planning and birth control."
Philip Karst, executive director of the Illinois Catholic Health Association, believes the plan from OSF HealthPlans in Peoria is a step in the right direction.
"I see it as allowing the individual government employee to exercise their moral judgment and to follow their moral conscience in terms of how they want their benefit dollars spent," Karst said.
The plan is administered by a company owned and operated by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. There are about 4,000 Illinois residents--including dependents of federal employees--eligible for the plan.
Annual deductibles
The annual deductible for an individual subscriber is $1,050; for a family, it's $2,100. An individual will pay $80.30 monthly for coverage, a family $199.66. The government's monthly contribution is $240.89 for individuals, $599 for families.
The Office of Personnel Management in Washington manages the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan, of which the Peoria plan is one offering. Kay Coles James, the office's director, was director of public affairs for the National Right to Life Committee from 1985 to 1989.
Abby Block, deputy associate director for employee and family support policy for the office, said there are 249 plans available nationally to 4.2 million people enrolled in federal health-insurance plans. There are at least 13 national and nine local plans available to federal workers who live Downstate, said a spokesman for the office.
"People in our program have a huge choice of plans," Block said. "Nobody has to enroll in this plan."
Critics say the health plan's second element, a health savings account, could be tempting to people looking for affordable health insurance and not necessarily seeking out a faith-based plan. Each year, enrollees can squirrel away tax-free money up to the amount of their deductible.
That money rolls over from year to year and can be used for purchases ranging from eyeglasses to over-the-counter medication, said Jeff Koch, marketing and communications manager for OSF. Koch said the OSF plan is one of three high-deductible plans with health savings accounts that are available to the state's federal employees. A fourth plan is offered to residents of Kane and McHenry Counties.
Cynthia Dailard, a senior policy analyst for the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit reproductive health research group, said she's afraid the OSF plan might be viewed by some as too reasonable to pass up.
"What I'm really concerned about is that people of reproductive age will find this attractive if they're young workers starting out and they're cost-conscious," Dailard said.
Nervous about `menu style'
Jonathan Moreno, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics of the University of Virginia Health System, said allowing individuals to select options for medical care "menu-style" makes him nervous.
"It does put a significant burden on people's ability to anticipate whether their views are going to change or not and whether their needs are going to change," Moreno said. "Although one can say, well, it's a market choice, it does tend to stigmatize a certain area of medicine, and it's an area of medicine that's generally considered to be an important one."
Planned Parenthood's Feldt said a plan that restricts contraceptive coverage could cost the government by resulting in unintended pregnancies.
"The women who use this plan may have to decide, do I pay for my pills this month, or do I pay my bills?" Feldt said.
Koch said it was not OSF's idea to craft a faith-based insurance program. He said OSF was approached by Michael O'Dea, a Catholic and longtime advocate of faith-oriented health care. O'Dea recently co-authored a paper for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, called: "Why It's Time for Faith-Based Health Plans."
O'Dea is also a consultant with ValuSure, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich., health-care consulting company that will administer the health savings account segment of the OSF plan. Additionally, O'Dea is executive director of the Christus Medicus Foundation, a non-profit organization that operates for religious charitable purposes, according to the Michigan secretary of state's office.
The group's Web site says its goal is to "reclaim Christ-centered health care by reforming corporate and public policy to allow God's people a `conscientious choice' in selecting health insurance."
"This is about freedom and freedom of choice in health care," O'Dea said. "If I want a program that doesn't fund abortion, I should be able to have that alternative."