Connecticut agrees to offer health plans with no abortion coverage

A family in Connecticut dropped its lawsuit against the Obama administration last week when the state’s healthcare exchange added options that no longer require enrollees to pay for elective abortions.

Barth and Abbie Bracy live in Dayville, Conn., with their four children. Bracy is the executive director of the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee, a small nonprofit that doesn’t offer health insurance plans for employees, requiring workers to purchase their own. Bracy had a family policy through Anthem BlueCross BlueShield, which did not cover abortion, and hoped to keep the coverage once the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law in 2012. Initially, due to ACA effects on private insurance companies, the Bracys’ premium shot up $70 per month to almost $500. Then in October 2013, Anthem informed the family that in order to meet ACA requirements, the plan would be canceled, according to the lawsuit.

Bracy discovered he could purchase a new plan similar to the previous one through Anthem’s participation in the state healthcare exchange. It had a shockingly low sticker price: less than $3 per month, after applicable subsidies for which the family qualified. But the prospect of recovering $497 in the family’s monthly budget collapsed when the enrollment counselor would not reveal whether or not the insurance plan covered elective abortions. After further research, Bracy discovered all plans on the Connecticut exchange included elective abortion coverage.

Federal law forbids taxpayer subsidies from paying for elective abortions. But the ACA includes a directive for insurance providers to “collect from each enrollee in the plan (without regard to the enrollee’s age, sex, or family status) a separate payment” to cover elective abortions. The monthly allocation is supposed to be set aside into a special fund the provider uses to pay for the procedures. States may opt-out or limit elective abortion coverage in some or all of their plans, according to their own abortion laws. All exchanges are required to offer at least one plan that does not cover elective abortions, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. But the report revealed five states—Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Vermont, and Hawaii—only offered plans with the coverage.

Bracy, a deacon in the Roman Catholic church, had three options: purchase a new policy through private insurance that would double the family’s already high premium; violate his beliefs and buy a policy through the exchange; or go without health insurance altogether, giving up his subsidy and risking fines. Instead, he sued the Obama administration for violating his family’s First Amendment rights and the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act.

On Nov. 19, Bracy voluntarily dropped the lawsuit after Connecticut officials announced they would add two plans with no elective abortion coverage. Information about which plans cover elective abortions and which don’t will be posted on the state exchange’s website. Officials also promised to train representatives on all the options so they can advise customers, the dismissal notice said.

Although pro-lifers now have options in Connecticut, four states still require all people enrolling in the healthcare exchange to chip in for others’ elective abortions. And millions of ACA enrollees across the nation may not be aware that, unless they’ve specifically asked to be in a plan with no elective abortion coverage, part of their monthly fee will be used to end a baby’s life.