Health Insurance That Does Not Cover Abortion
It is usually possible to purchase a plan that will not use your money to perform elective abortions. However, specifics vary by state. And you may have to forgo health insurance entirely and find another solution.
If you are looking to find a health plan that will have nothing to do with abortion, here’s what you need to know:
Health Insurance and Abortion Requirements By State
There are seven states where individual health insurance plans and fully-insured workplace plans are required by law to cover abortion on demand in all or nearly all cases:
- California
- Illinois
- Maine
- Maryland
- New York
- Oregon
- Washington
Other states require private insurance companies to pay for abortions if the life of the mother is in danger if the child is brought to term:
- Idaho
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- Oklahoma
Indiana additionally requires insurance companies to cover abortion in cases involving rape, incest, or severe health consequences for the mother.
Texas requires carriers to pay for abortions in cases involving a threat to the life of the mother or severe health consequences for her if the child is brought to term.
Utah requires insurance companies to cover abortion in cases involving threat to the mother’s life, rape, incest, severe health consequences to the mother, and fetal impairment to the child.
26 states restrict abortion coverage in plans offered under the Affordable Care Act exchanges to some extent. According to the National Women’s Law Center, these states include:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Georgia
- Florida
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Michigan
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Utah
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
Ten of these states have also banned insurance carriers from covering abortion even if they aren’t offered on the Affordable Care Act exchanges:
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Michigan
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- Oklahoma
- Utah
You can find more specific state-by-state information on laws and regulations governing insurance coverage of abortion from the Kaiser Family Foundation here.
Note that due to the various exceptions, such as those allowing for abortions in the event the mother’s life is threatened if the child is carried to term, states may appear in multiple categories.
If you’re in one of the seven states that requires all individual and fully-insured employer plans to provide coverage for abortion, you could consider looking around for an employer that self-insures its own employee benefits. This is often the case with larger employers.
These plans are not required to cover abortion.
So if you’re able to change employers, this may be one way of avoiding the ethical conflict of being forced to fund abortion.
Compare Pricing on the Best HealthShare Plans Available
Healthsharing – A Possible Ethical Solution
In most states, the way to entirely ‘opt out’ of effectively subsidizing abortion with your premium dollars while still protecting yourself and your family against potentially devastating medical costs is to purchase a healthsharing plan.
These plans are not insurance policies, and therefore are exempt from the state laws and regulations that otherwise govern insurance companies.
Instead, healthsharing is an affordable alternative to health insurance. Healthsharing plans are associations of like-minded individuals who voluntarily agree to share one another’s’ medical bills according to their organizations’ statement of beliefs or values.
Most of these healthsharing plans exclude abortion. So if you join one of these plans instead of a health insurance plan, you don’t have to worry about your dollars getting deployed to fund something you find abhorrent.
Another advantage is that when compared to the unsubsidized cost of traditional health insurance, health sharing usually costs much less. Up to 50% less, in many cases. While providing similar levels of financial protection to an ACA-qualified “silver” plan.
Compare Pricing on the Best Insurance Plans Available
Healthsharing Disadvantages
There are some potential disadvantages to joining a healthsharing plan in lieu of a traditional health insurance plan:
Healthsharing plans don’t qualify for an Affordable Care Act subsidy. While they are much more affordable for higher income Americans, lower-income consumers may find it difficult to afford without a government subsidy.
Another potential disadvantage may apply to people who have pre-existing medical conditions.
Unlike health insurance companies, which may not discriminate on the basis of your medical history, and which must generally cover pre-existing conditions if you haven’t had a break in creditable coverage, health sharing plans can and do impose waiting periods before costs related to pre-existing conditions become shareable.
However, if you have moral objections to contributing your premium dollars to the funding of abortions, you can afford the monthly costs, and you aren’t worried about pre-existing conditions, healthsharing may be an excellent solution.
For more details on healthsharing plans that may share your values when it comes to abortions and related procedures, contact an HSA For America Personal Benefits Manager. They are all experts on the different healthsharing organizations available in your area.
They can also help you go through the plan documents for health insurance carriers in your area and identify which plans cover abortion and which do not, and under which circumstances.
For Further Reading
