Planned Parenthood of Delaware (PPDE) today applauded the defeat of the Nelson/Hatch amendment in the U.S. Senate. The Nelson/Hatch amendment mirrors the Stupak/Pitts amendment to the House health care bill passed in early November. The amendment would have placed a new restriction on women's access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market, effectively undermining the ability of millions of women to purchase private health insurance plans that cover abortion care, even if they pay for the entire premium with their own money.Since 1977, the Hyde Amendment has prohibited federal funds from going for abortion. The current Senate health bill contains compromise language consistent with the Hyde Amendment that prohibits federal funding for abortion, while ensuring that women can use their own money to purchase private insurance that covers comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion.
“Planned Parenthood of Delaware applauds members of the Senate, including Senator Tom Carper, for standing up for women's health,” said PPDE President & CEO Nanci Hoffman. “The Nelson/Hatch amendment would have gone far beyond the Hyde Amendment, and that's why the Senate rejected it. Ever since the Stupak/Pitts abortion coverage ban was approved by the House, there has been growing outrage across the country.”
Earlier this week the U.S. Senate held a procedural vote, called a motion to table, on the Nelson/Hatch amendment. The motion to table passed 54-45, thus cutting off debate on the Nelson/Hatch amendment and defeating it. Unfortunately, Senator Ted Kaufman voted in favor of the amendment.
A few facts:
Abortion “riders” are illogical and unworkable.
Under the Nelson/Hatch amendment, women who receive premium credits are prohibited from using their own money to purchase abortion coverage as a part of a health insurance plan. Instead, it requires them to purchase unworkable abortion “riders”—abortion-only policies that undermine both the principles of insurance and privacy.n the 5 states (ID, KY, OK, MO, and ND) that only allow abortion coverage through “riders,” there is no evidence of abortion rider policies in the individual market. This is not surprising, since abortion riders would not function as insurance at all. Insurance experts have stated that by stripping a single health care service from the broader benefits package, abortion riders would actually cost the same as the cost of the abortion itself. bortion riders severely undermine patient privacy, as women would have to indicate that they plan on accessing abortion care. This type of disclosure is a violation of the spirit of existing federal privacy law.
The Nelson/Hatch abortion coverage ban will effectively ban abortion coverage in health insurance exchanges.
Insurance experts have stated that the Nelson/Hatch ban makes it “impractical” and unlikely for insurance companies to offer abortion coverage in the Exchange at all.[i]
The Nelson/Hatch ban could have an industry-wide impact, leading to the elimination of abortion coverage for health plans outside of exchanges, including the existing employer-based market.
In the current private health insurance marketplace, most health plans provide coverage for abortion services as part of a broader health care package.[ii]
A recent George Washington University study concludes that the Nelson/Hatch amendment “will have an industry-wide effect, eliminating coverage of medically indicated abortions over time for all women, not only those whose coverage is derived through a health insurance exchange. As a result, Nelson/Hatch can be expected to move the industry away from current norms of coverage for medically indicated abortions.”[iii]
Planned Parenthood will continue to work with its allies in Congress to pass health care reform and ensure that the final health reform legislation does not take benefits away from women.
