Americans are unable to make an informed choice if they are denied information, but that’s just what continues to happen with abortion coverage and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It was bad enough that the ACA forced pro-life Americans to fund abortion, but now a new accommodation to the act turns out to be not only a non-accommodation, but also a violation of the law.
“[T]he Obama Administration issued a new regulation purportedly intended to help insurance issuers in the state Exchanges comply with Obamacare’s major abortion provision. He really shouldn’t have bothered – it does nothing to correct the problems.”
The problems with the ACA and abortion coverage have plagued pro-lifers since the act was passed. President Obama, insisted in September of 2009:
“[O]ne more misunderstanding I want to clear up — under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.”
Those words appeased many pro-lifers who weren’t really sure what was in the plan, but they were never true. As the GAO reported recently, the plan not only forced Americans to fund abortion, but has actually allowed federal funds to directly subsidize abortion without their knowledge.
The GAO report clearly revealed that the president had lied to the nation, and it reported the way this abortion funding was mandated to be implemented was being ignored by most insurers:
” [U]nder the ACA the abortion premium is supposed to be ‘segregated’ from any federal subsidies, with issuers filing ‘segregation plan’ with their state health-insurance commissioner explaining how they will maintain the integrity of taxpayer funding.”
The ACA says:
“In the case of a plan [which covers abortion] the issuer of the plan shall collect from each enrollee in the plan . . . a separate payment for each of the following:
(I) an amount equal to the portion of the premium to be paid directly by the enrollee for coverage under the plan of services other than [abortion]; and
(II) an amount equal to the actuarial value of the coverage of [abortion], and shall deposit all such separate payments into separate allocation accounts.”
None of that happened. Instead, Americans have been forced to fund elective abortions against their will and against their consciences. And this use of force came from the very person charged to lead the nation, a nation that was founded on freedom.
Now the Obama Administration has issued its new regulation, which makes things worse.
The new regulation and alleged accommodation now says:
“Section 1303 of the Affordable Care Act permits, but does not require a[n] [insurance] issuer to separately identify the premium for non-excepted abortion services on the monthly premium bill in order to comply with the separate payment requirement. A consumer may pay the premium for non-excepted abortion services and for all other services in a single transaction, with the issuer depositing the funds into the issuer’s separate allocation accounts. . . .“
The new regulation, therefore, violates the law by acting as if a separate account wasn’t ever necessary, when it is clearly part of the act. Additionally, this new regulation offers zero transparency to Americans–who continue funding abortion, often without knowing it.
As Mary Harned, of Americans United for Life, points out in the National Review article:
“[Taxpayer funds are being commingled with abortion funds, and are being used to pay for abortions — this year, just like last year.”
It seems the Obama Administration is bent on accommodating the random, elective choice of baby killing over even Americans’ freedom of choice. This law and its corresponding tentacles have snatched the very heart of American values from the public. This latest ploy to appease the masses by “accommodating” them is nothing more than a sick joke at the expense of truth and transparency.
Thanks to the ACA, abortion is now even more embedded in American culture. Perhaps that was part of the “change” the president promised. It’s changed all right, by making it easier to kill human life–and making innocent Americans complicit in the process.
