Federal health insurance rules are a moving target, and it鈥檚 unclear whether Republicans will take another run at replacing the Affordable Care Act. In the meantime, some states are staking out strong positions on聽coverage of abortion, cementing their聽position regardless of how the federal landscape changes.
Last Tuesday, Texas Gov.聽Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed insurers in individual and employer plans from covering abortion unless a woman鈥檚 life is in danger. Women who want such coverage would have to buy a supplemental rider to their plan. That same day, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, signed an expansive health plans to cover reproductive health services, including contraceptive drugs, devices and procedures, without charging consumers anything out-of-pocket. Abortion is one of those services.
Neither of the new laws applies to the large companies that self-fund their health plans and pay their employees鈥 claims directly rather than buy coverage from an聽insurer.
The federal Affordable Care Act probably deserves some of the credit or blame, depending on your point of view, in both cases.
Insuring Your Health鈥淭he ACA raised the profile of abortion coverage in private insurance,鈥 said Adam Sonfield, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organization that supports abortion rights. The states to prohibit plans sold on the insurance marketplaces from covering abortion, and 25 states subsequently moved to restrict or prohibit it.
鈥淢any states passed those laws pretty quickly鈥 after 2010 when the ACA was passed, Sonfield said, 鈥渁nd other states took it further,鈥 banning or restricting abortion coverage in other private individual and group insurance plans. Ten states聽prohibit all private insurance plans from offering abortion coverage. Like Texas鈥 law, in eight of those states the only exception is to save a woman鈥檚 life.聽No allowances are made for rape, incest or fetal impairment.
鈥淭aking the life of pre-born child, that doesn鈥檛 change whether it鈥檚 a case of rape or incest,鈥 said John Seago, legislative director of Texas Right to Life, which supported the bill.
Offering abortion coverage as a supplemental rider to an insurance plan would allow women to opt in if they want it, Seago said. The bill鈥檚 supporters聽took their cues, he added, from other states such as Kansas, where restrictions have been in place for some time.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas offers a supplemental abortion policy for group plans 鈥 but not individual plans 鈥斅爐hat costs roughly $80 per member annually, said spokeswoman Mary Beth Chambers.
But abortion rights advocates say that with few exceptions supplemental insurance riders for abortion coverage simply aren鈥檛 available.
They liken the situation to the problems women faced getting maternity coverage before the ACA passed. Individual policies generally did not cover maternity expenses so women who didn鈥檛 get coverage through work would have to buy a rider to cover those costs. Often, though, they weren鈥檛 offered by insurers or were prohibitively expensive.聽The ACA required maternity聽coverage in all individual and small-group plans. An found that only 7 percent of individual plans offered those riders in 2012.
And while women may have ben able to plan ahead to purchase coverage for a pregnancy,聽鈥渘o one wants to think they鈥檙e going to need an abortion this year,鈥 Sonfield said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not something you want to plan for.鈥
The ACA was a force behind聽Oregon鈥檚 new law as well, advocates say.
鈥淚n other years, this could have been a can that could be kicked down the road,鈥 said Grayson Dempsey, executive director of Naral Pro-Choice Oregon, whose organization was part of a coalition of advocacy groups that worked on the law. 鈥淚nstead, now there was a real urgency to get it done.鈥
The Trump administration is expected to release a revised rule within days that will roll back ACA provisions聽requiring most employers and insurers to cover contraceptives without cost-sharing. The to allow any organization that has religious or moral objections to covering birth control to stop doing so.
The health plans to cover women鈥檚 reproductive health services without charging them anything out-of-pocket. It covers聽all , including vasectomies. Most controversially, it also covers abortion.
An opponent of the law said it will probably lead to more abortions. 鈥淲hen you make something free, it鈥檚 potentially accessed more,鈥 said Liberty Pike, communications director at Oregon Right to Life. Pike said her organization feared that young women would use abortion as birth control.
The organization doesn鈥檛 have a position on the other elements of the new law, Pike said.
The law has a caveat that allows insurers to offer plans that don鈥檛 cover contraceptives or provide abortions to religious employers, such as churches.
Two other states, , require nearly all health plans to cover abortion services, said Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for reproductive rights and health at the National Women鈥檚 Law Center.
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