Fact-Check Web Site Re-Confirms: Obamacare Funds Abortions

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 24, 2012   |   1:50PM   |   Washington, DC

A factchecking web site taking a look at the new Planned Parenthood expose’ book former Komen for the Cure VP Karen Handle wrote re-confirms that Obamacare, once fully implemented, will fund abortions with taxpayer funds.

Former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel wrote the book Planned Bullyhood to expose how the nation’s biggest abortion business bullied the breast cancer charity into renewing its funding. In the book, Handel claimed the White House was a co-conspirator in that bullying. Handel wrote that Planned Parenthood will receive millions of dollars in grants under the federal government’s health care law, or “Obamacare.”

In a new analysis, PolitiFact rates this as “mostly true.”

“[M]ost disturbing, is the fact that Obamacare will provide coverage for abortions, despite the president’s commitment that it would not,” Handel, a Republican, wrote on page 161 of the book. “Under a rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, insurance plans within the state health exchanges are required to cover abortions.”

PolitiFact responds this way, noting that abortion coverage will be present once the state exchanges are in place in 2014:

Handel’s statement contained two claims we wanted to fact-check: Does the health care law provide a means for coverage for abortions, and does the law provide such coverage despite President Barack Obama’s commitment that it would not?

If a state chooses to, it can use its own funds to cover abortions in certain other circumstances, and states will continue to have this option under the health care law.

If the state does not bar coverage of abortions, private insurers can offer a plan that covers abortions beyond the federal limitations within an exchange. Any plan that covers abortions beyond Hyde limitations must estimate the actuarial value of such coverage by taking into account the cost of the abortion benefit (valued at $1 or more per enrollee per month).

Nestled within the “individual mandate” in the Obamacare act — that portion of the Act requiring every American to purchase government — approved insurance or pay a penalty — is an “abortion premium mandate.” This mandate requires all persons enrolled in insurance plans that include elective abortion coverage to pay a separate premium from their own pockets to fund abortion.  As a result, many pro-life Americans will have to decide between a plan that violates their consciences by funding abortion, or a plan that may not meet their health needs.

As a knowledgeable pro-life source on Capitol Hill informed LifeNews, as authorized by Obamacare, “The final rule provides for taxpayer funding of insurance coverage that includes elective abortion” and the change to longstanding law prohibiting virtually all direct taxpayer funding of abortions (the Hyde Amendment) is accomplished through an accounting arrangement described in the Affordable Care Act and reiterated in the final rule issued today.

“To comply with the accounting requirement, plans will collect a $1 abortion surcharge from each premium payer,” the pro-life source informed LifeNews. “The enrollee will make two payments, $1 per month for abortion and another payment for the rest of the services covered. As described in the rule, the surcharge can only be disclosed to the enrollee at the time of enrollment.  Furthermore, insurance plans may only advertise the total cost of the premiums without disclosing that enrollees will be charged a $1 per month fee to pay directly subsidize abortions.”

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In her book, Handel describes that abortion surcharge:

“The new rule requires that an individual enrolled in one of these plans pay a separate fee of at least one dollar — an abortion surcharge. The abortion surcharge is paid directly to the abortion fund, going to an account that is separate from the monthly insurance premium. Why two separate accounts? It’s the Obama administration’s cunning and deceptive way to circumvent the prohibition of federal funds going to abortion — and no doubt, Planned Parenthood,” she wrote.

In its conclusion, PolitiFact sums up its confirmation that Obamacare will result in taxpayer-funded abortions.

“Basically, abortions can be performed under the health care law, depending on which state you reside in,” it says.