Birth Control Coverage Rule Debated at House Hearing

Lutheran and Baptist clergymen and an Orthodox rabbi joined a Roman Catholic bishop in telling lawmakers that Mr. Obama’s latest policy of shifting the responsibility for paying for the contraceptives from religious institutions to their health insurers was unworkable and did not allay concerns about government entanglement with religion.

“There is no real difference” between the original requirement and the attempted compromise, said John H. Garvey, president of the Catholic University of America, where 81 percent of undergraduates and 59 percent of graduate students are Catholic.

The first of two lineups of witnesses at a House committee hearing on Thursday consisted of five men.

Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, asked: “Where are the women? It’s outrageous that the Republicans would not allow a single individual representing the tens of millions of women who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventive health care services, including family planning.”

The witnesses, who testified at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had different views about contraception, but all said they were uneasy with the federal policy.

“The putative accommodation is no accommodation at all,” said the rabbi, Meir Soloveichik of Yeshiva University and Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York City. “Religious organizations would still be obligated to provide employees with an insurance policy that facilitates acts violating the organization’s religious tenets.”

With his proposal, Mr. Obama may have tamped down the public furor over mandating contraceptive coverage. But in Congress, it appears, the election-year debate is just beginning.

Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia, told the witnesses that they were being “used for a political agenda,” to embarrass Mr. Obama. “Today’s hearing is a sham, a shameful exercise,” Mr. Connolly said.

Representative Joe Walsh, Republican of Illinois, insisted: “This is not about women. This is not about contraceptives. This is about religious freedom.”

The Senate and the House plan to vote soon on legislation to block Mr. Obama’s policy.

Under the policy, most health insurance plans must cover birth control for women — all contraceptive drugs and devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration — as well as sterilization procedures. Church-affiliated universities, hospitals and charities would not have to provide contraceptive coverage to female employees, nor would they have to subsidize its cost. Coverage for birth control would be offered to women directly by their employers’ insurance companies, “with no role for religious employers who oppose contraception,” the White House said.

Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, described this as “an accounting gimmick.”

In a rule published Wednesday in the Federal Register, the Obama administration reaffirmed, “without change,” the narrow exemption for churches and other houses of worship. The administration said it would allow a “safe harbor from enforcement” for one year, while it revises the rule to address concerns of church-affiliated organizations that have religious objections to covering contraceptive services.

The Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, said he had no ill will toward the administration. “I pray for the president every day,” Mr. Harrison said, even as he expressed “deep distress” over the new policy and complained of “government intrusions into Christian conscience and practice.”

Representative William Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri, said both sides were distorting the facts. “I’m disappointed in some who suggest that the Catholic bishops’ stance represents something sinister, that it is an attempt to deny all women, of any faith, access to any contraception or reproductive health care of any kind,” Mr. Clay said. “I don’t think that’s the case. I’m also disappointed in those who claim that the administration has an agenda: to increase abortions, sterilizations and contraceptive use by Catholics. The facts don’t back that up, not in the slightest.”

The committee heard testimony from two women, both opposed to the administration policy.

The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, said women who could testify to the need for contraceptive coverage had been excluded. “What is it that men don’t understand about women’s health?” Ms. Pelosi said. “And how central the issue of family planning is to that?”

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Diabetes Takes Toll on Women's Hearing: Study

FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Diabetes is associated with hearing loss in women, especially if the blood sugar disease isn't well-controlled, new research indicates.

The study, done by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, examined the medical records of 990 men and women who had hearing tests between 2000 and 2008. Patients with diabetes were divided into two groups: well-controlled and poorly controlled.

Among women aged 60 to 75, hearing loss was 14 percent worse even in well-controlled diabetics compared to those without diabetes. That is not a clinically significant loss, noted study author Dr. Kathleen Yaremchuk, chairwoman of the department of otolaryngology at the Henry Ford Healthcare System in Detroit.

"An individual might not notice it," Yaremchuk said.

On the other hand, poorly controlled diabetics' hearing was 28 percent worse than the non-diabetic group's hearing.

Younger women who had diabetes, well-managed or not, were more likely to have hearing loss than those unaffected by the illness, the study found.

Diabetes is known to affect the eyes, kidneys and other organs, Yaremchuk said. "Our study shows it can affect hearing as well."

In the study, presented recently at the Triological Society's annual meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., there was no link between hearing loss among men and diabetes, whether it was well-managed or not. Men are more likely in general to suffer from hearing loss than women, so the prevalence of the condition among males may mask diabetes' effect, the study suggested.

Men are exposed to more environmental causes of hearing loss, such as loud noise, either in the workplace or during leisure activities, such as attending large sporting events, explained Yaremchuk.

Managing diabetes properly should help prevent hearing loss or keep it from getting worse, Yaremchuk said.

What's unknown is if better management of diabetes can reverse hearing loss that's already occurred.

"We do not know if losing weight and improving control of diabetes will reverse the hearing loss that is seen. However, it will stop progression of the hearing loss," she said.

Recommendations call for diabetics' to have their vision checked every year, said Dr. Spyros Mezitis, a clinical endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

This latest finding suggests diabetics may also need to have their hearing tested, Mezitis said.

"This study will help make doctors more aware to ask about hearing, particularly in women between 60 and 75," said Mezitis, also an assistant professor of clinical medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.

About 26 million Americans have diabetes, mostly type 2, which is associated with obesity.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

To learn more about diabetes, visit U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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