Expert: Nelson Amendment Would ‘Chill’ Access to Abortion Coverage

Sara Rosenbaum, health policy expert at George Washington University, today released her take on the Ben Nelson abortion restrictions found in the Senate’s health care reform bill. Here’s a hint: They won’t make it easy, in her estimation, for women to access comprehensive health care services — particular if women are forced to write two separate premium checks to their insurers, one to cover abortion services and another for all other care. That provision, Rosenbaum writes, ”could be expected to chill issuers’ willingness to sell products that cover a range of medically indicated abortions.”

They would have to comply with complex audit standards and more importantly, they would have to collect an additional fee from each member of their plan, a step that could be expected to encounter broad resistance. (It is also not clear what the consequences would be for plan members who do not make the payment or whether non-payment would place them in arrears). The more logical response would be not to sell products that cover abortion services.

Even so, some abortion foes in the House are saying the Nelson amendment is too weak, leaving the possibility that the restrictions could become even more stringent during negotiations between the leaders in each chamber.

The Senate is expected to pass the enormous health reform bill later this week.