Debra Friedman, a member of Cozen O'Connor's Labor & Employment department, discusses the recent Supreme Court case centering on the Affordable Care Act. The case, which is actually seven cases consolidated into Zubik et al. v. Burwell, stems from the ACA’s requirement that nonexempt employers providing health insurance to employees must offer plans which include preventative care, or pay a hefty penalty. This aspect of the ACA has been called the “contraceptive mandate.” The Zubik petitioners are a group of religiously affiliated employers that do not qualify for the exemption to this requirement applicable to churches and other religious organizations. An order of nuns called the Little Sisters of the Poor, which does not qualify for the exemption because it serves the elderly poor on a nondenominational basis, has emerged as the face of the case.
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