Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) takes issue with a George Washington University study, which found that his anti-abortion amendment to House health care legislation would ultimately cause insurance companies to stop covering abortions altogether.
“The idea that insurers will stop providing abortion services because of the Stupak-Ellsworth-Pitts amendment is nothing more than speculation,” Stupak says, in a statement to TPMDC. “There is no language in this amendment that in any way prohibits private health insurance companies from offering these services.”
To the contrary, the amendment clearly states, “nothing in this section shall restrict any nonfederal QHBP offering entity from offering separate supplemental coverage for abortions for which funding is prohibited under this section.” The language in Stupak-Ellsworth-Pitts is completely consistent with Hyde language, which in its 30 years of existence has not inhibited private health insurers from offering abortion services. There is no reason to believe a continuation of this policy would suddenly change that.
It should also be pointed out that the Federal Employee Health Benefit plan, with more than 8 million members, does not allow abortion coverage. Yet the companies that offer abortion free plans to federal employees also offer plans with abortion coverage to private individuals. Given insurance companies are already offering separate plans with and without abortion coverage it seems unlikely it will be a significant hardship to continue to do so on the Exchange.
The GWU study concluded that insurance companies would respond to the abortion restrictions in the Stupak amendment by whittling down abortion coverage over time until they stop offering it altogether–a business decision not strictly mandated by the legislation itself, but the impact would be the same. .
