Insurers will be required to issue separate invoices for abortion coverage starting in June, the result of a new Obamacare rule, a change that will likely affect more than 3 million people, The Washington Post reported.
The total cost of healthcare premiums will not change under the new rule, but it will create a burden on insurers.
The insurance industry will get hit with the extra costs, which could be passed on to consumers, per the Post. Health and Human Services wrote that insurers, enrollees, and exchanges would reach $546.1 million in 2020 and then stabilize at $232.1 million in 2021, $230.7 million in 2022, and $229.3 million in 2023.
Jacqueline Ayers, vice president for government relations for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the rule is an effort to make legal abortion more difficult to access: "This rule won't just require separate payments, it further splits off abortion from other reproductive healthcare and puts up massive barriers to access."
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., a USCCB official, praised the change.
"Consumers have a right to know if they are paying for elective abortion," he told the Post. "While the Affordable Care Act still allows government-subsidized plans to cover abortion, at least with this rule, Americans can now see and try to avoid complicity by choosing plans consistent with their consciences."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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