By Dave Andrusko
One of the good pieces of news in the last year is how many states have taken advantage of the “opt-out” provision of ObamaCare. As you recall. ObamaCare requires the States to operate and maintain “health insurance exchanges” where individuals can shop around for health insurance plans. But ObamaCare also gave each state the right to prohibit coverage of abortions under the qualified health plans offered through the exchanges. Fifteen states have passed these laws and another 12 are considering similar measures.
However, Washington State tried just the opposite: to pass legislation affirming that the plans offered in these exchanges must cover abortions. For the moment, that initiative has been at least stalled.
HB 2330 (the Reproductive Parity Act), which passed the state House but did not clear the Senate, would accomplish this by requiring insurers who cover prenatal care (which Washington insurers are mandated to provide) to also pay for abortions. According to Mary Spaulding Balch, director of NRLC’s Department of State Legislation, the only other state considering similar rules is New York.
Six members of Congress, including Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, wrote to President Obama that if the bill passed it “would be a direct violation of federal law which protects providers ,in this case insurance companies and health plans, against discrimination for choosing not to provide coverage of abortions.”
The letter called on the Obama Administration to “send a strong message to Washington State that enacting legislation in violation of the Hyde/Weldon amendment will jeopardize federal funds to the state.”
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