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  • Title: Coverage of abortion controversial in both public and private plans.
    Author: Sollom T.
    Journal: State Reprod Health Monit; 1996 Sep; 7(3):5-6. PubMed ID: 12347485.
    Abstract:
    During 1995-96, 17 of 50 US states used their own resources, either voluntarily or under state court order, to pay for all or most abortions for low-income women. Alaska, Maryland, New York, and Washington are the only states to voluntarily pay for these abortions. Anti-choice legislators in California, Illinois, New York, and West Virginia tried unsuccessfully to cut funding for these abortions. Arkansas is the only state to circumvent direct payment for abortions for low-income women. Alabama, Mississippi, and South Dakota still are not complying with the court order but remain in the Medicaid program. Massachusetts has passed legislation to allow health insurance to cover abortions for state and city employees, thereby undoing a 17-year ban on the use of public funds for abortions for employees or their spouses. On the other hand, Virginia's governor has unilaterally, via an executive order, eliminated health insurance coverage for most abortions for state employees and their dependents. Anti-choice legislators have shepherded legislation that prohibit private insurance coverage for abortion unless women pay an extra premium in Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, and North Dakota. Legislators in Illinois and Minnesota have passed state subsidized health care reform programs that exclude abortion from coverage except when the mother's life is endangered. There appears to be a loophole in the MinnesotaCare program that allows women to obtain state-financed abortions for other reasons, so antifunding lawmakers will introduce a bill in 1997 to close the loophole. The loophole is a result of a conflict between state and federal laws as a result of a 1995 federal waiver granted to Minnesota. The waiver allows pregnant women who earn up to 275% of the federal poverty level to be eligible for either MinnesotaCare or Medicaid. Abortion-rights legislators find MinnesotaCare's exclusion of abortion coverage to be a violation of the court order. They plan to submit a bill in 1997 to repeal this prohibition.
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