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Friday, August 30, 2013

Abortion Coverage for Congress?



 Family Research Council

We've alerted you before to Obamacare's pro-abortion guerrilla tactics, the secretive abortion surcharge and health plan accounting gimmicks. It appears the administration is up to it again!

Recently the federal government's human resources department, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), issued a proposed rule to help subsidize healthcare for Congressional staff and Members of Congress being forced onto the Obamacare state exchanges. The kicker is those federal dollars may now go to pay for plans offered on those exchanges that include abortion coverage.

There's been a longstanding ban on federal funds going to pay for abortion in Congressional and federal healthcare plans, but it now appears the administration is pushing a new abortion subsidy. The OPM plans to use its authority found in the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) to contribute premium support to plans offered on the state exchanges that cover elective abortion.

The administration claims it will comply with the law prohibiting federal funds from going to abortion coverage, but healthcare experts and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the author of the FEHBP ban, remain skeptical since OPM rule does not restrict Members and staff from receiving contributions if they choose plans with abortion coverage.

If experience is any guide, where abortion is not explicitly prohibited it's implicitly allowed. If the Administration plans to respect current law it should be an easy lift to include a ban in the proposed regulations, if for no other reason than to clarify an ambiguity.

That's what we're asking.

Right now the OPM is soliciting the public to comment on the new rule. Join us in telling the administration via public comment to quit hiding behind arcane regulations and bring this issue into the sunlight by explicitly prohibiting Members of Congress and their staff from receiving contributions through FEHBP for plans on the healthcare law's state exchanges that include abortion coverage.



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