Before going home this week, the Senate and House will yet get to vote on a “clean-up” insurance bill that will include the contents of HB 2292, introduced last year by Rep. Pete DeGraaf (R-Mulvane). [UPDATE, MAY 13: the bill passed the Senate 28-10 and the House 86-30]
HB 2292 requires health insurance policies to remove abortion from automatic coverage, relegating it to individually-purchased riders. This only makes sense; pregnancy is not a disease and abortion is not true healthcare.
Blue Cross of Kansas City implemented this policy decades ago in eastern Kansas, because their Missouri clients across the stateline had such a limit.
HB 2292 would only permit standard health insurance coverage for abortions done to save the life of the mother– although abortions for that reason have not occurred in Kansas since mandatory reporting began in 1998.
HB 2292 would also prevent any future ‘Obamacare’ state health exchanges from including abortion coverage.
Between 1978 and 1983, 6 states enacted laws only permitting ‘life-of-the-mother’ abortion coverage in private company health insurance: Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska [Correction May 13: the older Nebraska law only applied to publicly funded plans,the new bill applies to private insurance] North Dakota and Wisconsin. In 2007, Oklahoma enacted health insurance restrictions, but due to the pro-abortion governor, also included policies to cover abortion for rape/incest.
Pro-abortion reps argued on the Kansas House floor last year that families needed pre-paid abortion insurance to deal with fetal abnormalities and the rape of their teen daughters!
In the first case, Kansas forbade post-viability abortions for reasons of abnormality in 1998. In the second case, our nation has for too long acquiesced to the argument that unborn children must suffer the death penalty for the rape crimes of their fathers.
Even though Roe v Wade may have made performing abortions legal, ”I don’t think the rest of society should have to pay for abortions,” said De Graaf. Most Kansans agree and let’s hope the vote succeeds.
