Any privately held, for-profit company could potentially be
exempt from the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) requirement to
provide comprehensive contraceptive coverage without cost-sharing
based on the company's "sincerely held moral
convictions," under interim final regulations published in the
Federal Register on October 13, 2017.
Issued jointly by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Internal
Revenue Services (IRS), the regulations build on a 2014 case in
which the Supreme Court of the United States found that a closely
held company was exempt from the contraceptive coverage requirement
based on its owners' sincerely held religious beliefs. (The
agencies also issued a parallel set of interim final regulations
covering specifically religious objections.) This separate and new
"moral exemption" would also be available to nonprofits,
certain colleges and universities with respect to their student
plans, and
