I haven’t even gotten around to reading about the other SCOTUS decision regarding public sector unions that was released today, as Big Hobby and its lobbying powers vis a vis our federal judicial system has dominated the conversation.

I do agree that the ultimate foundation of the whole contraception case is religious in nature, though I do not believe it is over any deeply-held belief that certain forms of contraception are abortifacents. It’s over the religious belief that women are subordinate people and should not be in control of basic medical decisions. That the decision is specifically limited to contraception and not, say, a Jehovah’s Witness owned company that wants to not cover blood transfusions is the giant ringing bell identifying this is as specifically anti-woman. It is a monstrous belief, a toxic belief and it’s one that should not get public policy preference.

Tying health insurance to employers with tax preferences has long been bad public policy. It has obscured real compensation numbers for employees and is now even worse that corporations can dictate the terms of the insurance coverage based on their religious belief. The insurers want to cover contraception but now they’re obligated to sell group insurance plans to companies that don’t cover basic medicine because some jerk has a supposed “moral” objection to it.

Make the tax policy preference benefit the individual insurance market and not the employer/group market and it takes away the power of jerks to make decisions not based on actual medicine for their employees. It would make compensation and pay numbers more transparent, it would increase the size and thus the risk pool of the individual health insurance market, and it would make it easier for people to change jobs without fearing gaps or reductions in their health coverage.