By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
This is a frequently asked question around here, Save Jerseyans, so I thought it was worth explaining in a light news cycle owing to heavy snow and ongoing speculation concerning the upcoming Supreme Court subsidy fight:
YES, if you’re enrolled in a New Jersey ‘Obamacare’ plan, you’re financing abortions (regardless of whether you yourself ever obtain one).
The facts: as was laid bare by a joint study conducted by the Charlotte Lozier Institute and Family Research Council, all 58 plans currently available through New Jersey’s federally-facilitated marketplace cover elective abortion:
AmeriHealth (18): All plans cover elective abortion (2014 GAO Report)
Health Republic (20): All plans cover elective abortion (2014 GAO Report)
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield (9): All plans cover elective abortion (2014 GAO Report)
*Oscar (5): All plans cover elective abortion (issuer communication)
*United Health Care (6): All plans cover elective abortion (issuer communication)
“But Matt! If it’s elective, then how am I paying for someone else’s abortions?” Rep. Chris Smith (R, NJ-04) raised and explained this issue on the House floor back in January.
“An extensive audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released in September of last year found that 1,036 Obamacare exchange plans covered elective abortion,” said Smith, on the same day that Pro-Life marchers were scaling Capitol Hill. “GAO also found that separate billing of the abortion surcharge – required by the Act – is not being enforced by the administration and the abortion-funding premium is again being illegally rolled into the total plan cost.”
Said another way: Federal law (the Hyde Amendment) prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion; consequently, Obamacare plans are supposed to bifurcate premiums AND a separate fee, collected from enrollees each month, called an “abortion surcharge.” In practice, however, companies are lumping the surcharge into the total, failing to enumerate the surcharge at the time of payment. Plans buoyed by federal subsidies are carrying abortion coverage in violation of federal law, and we’ve discussed before how New Jersey receives some of the country’s richest subsidies.
I don’t care how you feel about abortion qua abortion. EVERYONE should be disgusted by yet another flagrant example of casual disregard for the rule of law under the Obama regime. That and, of course, the fact that the President once again lied directly to our collective face:
