July 16, 2010. The National Catholic Bioethics Center joins the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in welcoming the agreement by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) to exclude elective abortion coverage in the high-risk pool insurance program allocations to states. 

 Pennsylvania and New Mexico were slated to receive funding which would pay for abortion of demand, consistent with health care reform legislation (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or PPACA).  Such funding of abortion on demand was to occur pursuant to provisions in the PPACA  that excludes from the cost sharing provision certain programs including the high-risk pool insurance programs.  These cost sharing provisions required individuals seeking federal health plan coverage that included abortion on demand, to write separate checks for such coverage. The PPACA does not require those participating in the high-risk insurance program to write separate checks.  Even if PPACA did require these mechanisms of separate checks and separate payroll deductions for such abortion coverage, for the first time in US history the federal government will fund health care plans that provide abortion on demand. Although President Obama’s executive order concerning the PPACA cannot contravene existing law, in a recent announcement HHS has stated that it will not include coverage of elective abortions in its high risk pool allocations to states. [i]

 The NCBC, while welcoming this reversal for these allocations, again stresses the need for Congress to enact legislation, clearly stating once and for all that funds appropriated by PPACA will not pay for abortions or for insurance coverage that includes abortion.  [See: : “The National Catholic Bioethics Center Supports Proposed Remedies to the Flawed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)".