Uncertainty follows SCOTUS Hobby Lobby ruling

Across the country, employees, employers, insurers and health care advocates are trying to adjust to the new legal landscape created by the Supreme Court’s decision late last month allowing some for-profit corporations to deny contraceptive coverage to employees, based on the owners’ religious faith (Source: “Hobby Lobby ruling fuels political and legal uncertainty,” McClatchy News Service, July 2, 2014).

As the real-life impact of the controversial ruling slowly begins to play out, questions about its breadth, scope and meaning continue to be debated. In the 5-4 decision, the high court ruled that two family-owned corporations, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, did not have to cover birth control on their employee health insurance plans as required under the so-called “contraceptive mandate” provision of the Affordable Care Act.