I have been preparing an LTE about the health care law, and in the process have been engaged in an email dialogue with my U.S. congressman, the erstwhile Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, on the controversies about abortion allegedly being covered by the new law.
I asked Rep. Hoekstra to explain to me exactly what procedure a woman who desired a federally-funded abortion could go through to acquire one once the new law was fully in effect, and one of his written replies was this:
" Additionally, the law gives the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) the power to require private insurance plans to include abortion coverage under the title of "preventative care." "
This sounded purely speculative to me, and I have been trying to research this idea more fully, yet I am finding it a bit difficult to respond to fears about "what might happen sometime in the future."
As I understand it, the HRSA, an existing bureaucracy, will determine what practices must be included as preventative services in all insurance plans offered on state exchanges, and some worry that if the HRSA includes abortion as preventative care, which some believe they have the right and ability to do, abortion would then be included in such federally-subsidized plans - although I am by no means suggesting my understandings are currently correct...
If anyone has any helpful information regarding this particular issue, or someone has something to add of any insight at all, I would appreciate a response.
It would help me clarify for readers of my letter what the facts are about this bill and abortion. Thank you so much.