Yesterday, the President of the United States issued a statement that enforcement of a portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) known as the employer mandate would be delayed by a year. The complexity of the law lends to the confusion people are experiencing in determining whether the HHS contraception mandate would be delayed, too. EWTN has analyzed this change in implementation and determined, with advice of counsel, that the HHS contraception mandate was in no way changed by the President’s action yesterday.
The employer mandate affects only those employers who do not currently provide health insurance and employ 50 or fewer full time equivalent employees. Because EWTN provides health insurance for its more than 350 employees, this delay provides no change to EWTN’s situation or the applicability of the HHS contraception mandate. The final rule for the contraception mandate issued last week will force EWTN to provide contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and voluntary sterilizations beginning on the EWTN plan date of July 1, 2014. EWTN remains committed to fighting this senseless mandate.
EWTN Global Catholic Network, in its 32nd year, is available in over 225 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. With its direct broadcast satellite television and radio services, AM & FM radio networks, worldwide short-wave radio station, Internet website http://www.ewtn.com, electronic and print news services, and publishing arm, EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world.
###