Trying desperately to get out ahead of the mushrooming controversy over their assault on religious freedom, administration members made two laughable assertions on Sunday morning television:
First, the "compromise" idea of forcing insurance companies to provide "free" abortifacient/sterilization/contraception coverage is just silly: As a preliminary matter, that's no "compromise" because the coverage will still be provided through employers, and the costs will be passed through to policyholders. It's just an accounting gimmick. But even if one takes it at face value, when did it become permissible in America for the federal government to order private insurance companies to provide any product for free? (Maybe the Obama administration should next tell Planned Parenthood to rework its lucrative abortion business and offer their services for free, too -- and see how that work out. One suspects PP won't want to lose the $164 million it rakes in through abortion each year, not even counting what it harvests from taxpayers and extorts from hostages like the Komen foundation).
Second, administration officials are assuring Americans that the coverage really costs insurance companies nothing -- that it's "cheaper" for them to do it than not to. If that's the case, why haven't insurance companies been offering free abortifacient/sterilization/contraception coverage before now? How lucky they are to have the Obama administration to force them to do what's in their own economic self-interest. Right.