Essay
This bill states that abortion and abortion related services (pre and post abortion care) must be covered by health plans and insurance. Abortion is a healthcare procedure defined as, “the termination of a pregnancy before the fetus can survive outside the uterus. It can occur spontaneously, known as a miscarriage, or be induced intentionally through medical or surgical procedures.” (Yale Medicine 2024) This bill also includes coverage for abortion related services. Abortion related services include but are not limited to counseling, ultrasounds, medical exams, informational appointments, and medical intervention for complications.
This bill also addresses the different types of insurance plans and healthcare assistance programs that would be impacted by this legislation. Co-payments are “a set dollar amount a patient pays for medical expenses.” (HealthInsurance. Org 2024) A high deductible plan is a set amount that an individual pays before insurance begins to cover expenses. These deductibles are higher than the average healthcare deductible. They allow for a lower monthly cost, but one needs to pay more out of pocket before insurance begins to cover it. This bill says health plans should cover abortion and abortion related services without copay or cost sharing. For those with high deductible plans, this bill calls for a minimal amount to be paid. The aim of this plan is to make abortion more accessible to lower income women and families who may not be able to pay for an abortion for medical or personal reasons.
The main point of this bill is to make abortion more cost friendly and available so it can impact the people who need it most. The wealth gap translates to abortion as wealthy women who experience complications or who do not want to endure a pregnancy can have access to abortions while women in poverty cannot. Many women in poverty who are not seeking abortion for medical reasons seek it because they cannot support another child. It is reported that “Women seeking abortion reported economic hardships at the time of abortion seeking—half (51%) were living below 100% of the federal poverty level; 3 quarters (76%) reported not having enough money to cover housing, transportation, and food. Most (63%) already had children.” (NIH 2018) These women can also likely not afford birth control or other services to prevent pregnancy.
While this bill provides many positives for people seeking abortion care, it does have negatives associated with it. Insurance costs may go up due to this coverage being added, but the impacts are unknown at this time. This bill could also provide moral and ethical dilemmas if insurance providers and organizations do not deem abortion as moral or if it goes against their beliefs/religion. This could also lead to hardship in decision depending on the time of the abortion and the gestation of the fetus. According to the CDC , “the majority (80.8%) of abortions were performed at ≤9 weeks’ gestation, and nearly all (93.5%) were performed at ≤13 weeks’ gestation. During 2012–2021, the percentage of abortions performed at >13 weeks’ gestation remained ≤8.7%.” (CDC 2023) Abortions performed after this time are almost always due to fetal or maternal complications.
Work Cited
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Abortion surveillance—United States, 2020. MMWR Surveillance Summaries, 72(9), 1-34. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/ss/ss7209a1.htm
Health Insurance Resource Center. (n.d.). Copayment. https://www.healthinsurance.org/glossary/copayment/
McLemore, M. R., & Altman, R. (2017). Women’s experiences with abortion: A qualitative study of women seeking abortion in the United States. PMC, 5803812. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5803812/#:~:text=Women%20seeking%20abortion%20reported%20economic,63%25)%20already%20had%20children.
Yale Medicine. (n.d.). Abortion. https://www.yalemedicine.org/clinical-keywords/abortion#:~:text=Definition,through%20medical%20or%20surgical%20procedures.
