Obama’s Political Prophylactic

“White House compromise still guarantees contraceptive coverage for women,” reads the Washington Post headline coming out of President Obama’s press conference this afternoon. Trying to tamp down the escalating political storm his administration created three weeks ago when it ruled that, under Obamacare, employers with religious objections to providing contraceptive and abortifacient coverage must do so anyway, his team has come up with a "compromise."

Here it is, as reported by the Post – read carefully:

Women still will be guaranteed coverage for contraceptive services without any out-of-pocket cost, but will have to seek the coverage directly from their insurance companies if their employers object to birth control on religious grounds.

Religiously-affiliated non-profit employers such as schools, charities, universities, and hospitals will be able to provide their workers with plans that exclude such coverage. However, the insurance companies that provide the plans will have to offer those workers the opportunity to obtain additional contraceptive coverage directly, at no additional charge.

Got that? Then who’s going to pay for that additional coverage? (It’s not “free.”) The insurance companies? They’ll simply pass the costs back to the religious employer – insofar as the employer picks up at least part of the cost of covering his employees' health insurance premiums, as most do. So we’re right back where we started from.

This is a fig leaf, which is why progressives have quickly rallied behind the “compromise.” It’s just another example of the something-for-nothing mindset that drives their agenda. Stay tuned. We haven’t heard the end of this.