health care in WA

November 22, 2013

Obamacare Coverage in Washington  By Joseph Backholm Over the last couple years, the abortion industry in Washington has done a lot of hand-wringing over the possibility that some insurance plans sold in Washington would not cover abortion.               When it was passed, the Affordable Care Act gave states the right not to cover abortion in their health care exchanges.     Eighteen states passed legislation specifically prohibiting abortion coverage in their exchanges. Of course Washington was not one of them.  We continue to have an A+ rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League for our unambiguously pro-abortion policies. However, because of the prohibition on federal funding for abortion,  (which the Obama administration is apparently not interested in enforcing) there was uncertainty about how abortion coverage would be treated in the Obamacare exchanges. The abortion industry's response was to promote an abortion insurance mandate and require every insurance policy to cover abortion. And why not? Can you even imagine the harm that would result if a woman wanting abortion coverage inadvertently purchased a policy without it? What? You think women are smart enough to figure out if they are buying abortion coverage or not? You obviously hate women. Regardless, we no longer have to discuss hypotheticals, because Obamacare is here now. We passed it so now we get to find out what's in it.  And hasn't that been like an early Christmas present. Here in Washington State, there is only one insurance policy on the exchange that doesn't cover abortion.  That plan is the Blue Cross Multi-state options administered by Premera. Every other plan?  You guessed it. They cover abortion. And a mad scramble is underway to make sure everyone knows it. Now that the facts are in, a mandate to force everyone to buy abortion insurance as a way of making abortion insurance available appears to be unnecessary. It would be like a mandate to run beer commercials during football games. They got it covered.  But that doesn't mean they won't revive the mandate.  And the reason why is buried in the name of the legislation...the Reproductive Parity Act.  They aren't primarily concerned with making sure women have access to abortion.  That's status quo.  They want to create a parity between birth and abortion.  They're angry that moral disapproval of abortion exists and that people have the right to express that through their purchasing decisions. So they want to take that right away.  After all, they're "pro-choice".              If you're pro-choice in the true sense, and you'd like more choices than the current Obamacare exchange offers, consider Samaritan Ministries, a Christian cost sharing ministry that my family and I are part of.              We made the switch when our monthly premium reached $1,800/month. Now we pay $350/month to cover our family of 6.               Membership in this ministry allows you to avoid the Obamacare fine/tax and is much less expensive than what people are paying through Obamacare.              It works too.  I have a two-year old son that is a danger to himself and others.  He has been to the ER three times and we pay only the first $300 of every incident.  The remainder is covered by checks from families all over the country who are helping to share the burden.  We are also blessed with the chance to send our prayers and a check to another family with medical costs every month as well.  It's people helping people, and the government isn't even involved. Who ever heard of such a thing? Yes, it's a commercial. No, I wasn't asked to plug them nor are we compensated in any way for doing so.  But it might be a blessing for your family.