Cardinal Dolan: Latest HHS Rule Being Studied, Time Extension Appreciated

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' 110-page ruling on its health care mandate requires time for analysis, said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Cardinal Dolan also expressed gratitude for the five-month extension on implementing the complex proposal.

HHS issued the ruling June 28. The effective date of the rule had been set for August 1, 2013, but today's decision moves the date to January 1, 2014 for some nonprofit entities.

"We have received and started to review the 110-page final rule on the HHS mandate," Cardinal Dolan said.

"We appreciate the extension of the effective date by five months, which is readily apparent in the rule," he said. "The remainder of the rule is long and complex. It will require more careful analysis.  We will provide a fuller statement when that analysis is complete."

The HHS mandate requires that almost all employers, even those with moral objections to contraception, abortion and sterilization, provide employees contraceptives, including those that cause abortion, and sterilization, free of charge as part of services for women under the new health care law.

SOURCE U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops