Obamacare and Abortion: Americans are often forced to pay for abortion coverage they do not want.

by Genevieve C. Plaster & Arina O. Grossu, NRO, February 13, 2015 (excerpts)

With just days remaining before the deadline to enroll in a health-insurance plan under Obamacare, Americans who have not yet done so will be hurrying to finish researching their best options for themselves and their families. For many, this research will include the question of whether a plan covers elective abortion. And this is indeed a critical question for many reasons, not the least of which is that enrollment in a plan that covers it would require members to pay a separate monthly abortion surcharge.

Yet — as is well documented by now (check here and here) — ascertaining the abortion policy for plans on the Obamacare exchanges has been anything but a walk in the park. To assist Americans in navigating through the complete lack of transparency from the Obama administration, the Charlotte Lozier Institute and the Family Research Council jointly created ObamacareAbortion.com in November of 2014 to share their findings on plans in each state....

...pro-life Americans in four states (Hawaii, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont) still have no choice if they are looking for a subsidized marketplace plan that excludes elective abortion. It’s also important to remember that in a total of nine states, 90 percent or more of the available plans cover elective abortion. They are: California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

Consumers should be especially aware of the difficulty that continues to exist in trying to get straight information. For example, in Hawaii in 2015, the state exchange advised us to contact the issuers directly on the question of elective-abortion coverage because it didn’t “have that amount of detail.” When we called Kaiser Permanente, the representative claimed that the company covered only “medically necessary procedures in some cases but not elective abortions,” but did not provide any documentation. Hawaii Medical Service Association likewise confirmed that it does cover elective abortion, but did not provide any documentation either. A sales representative redirected us back to Hawaii Health Connector, which had originally directed us to the individual companies; then the representative insisted that the information is available online (which is not the case)....

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