Of all the health reform issues confronting business executives, the one they least want to talk about is the "A" word: abortion. Yet two weeks ago, the Senate Finance Committee adopted a "conscience clause" in its health reform bill that would let employers with religious or moral qualms drop abortion coverage from a proposed standard health benefits plan. Many workers don't know it, but the vast majority of their employer-provided health plans contain abortion coverage. The coverage is cheap, averaging $7.20 a year, or roughly half of 1 percent of the cost of an average individual health policy.
If the Senate provision survives, Democratic political consultant Ann Lewis argues, it will "replace individual conscience with employer-controlled [conscience]." But in reality, few firms seem likely to drop abortion coverage. Many are reluctant to impose particular beliefs on diverse groups of employees. Another reason is simple economics: Uncomplicated abortions cost about one seventh as much as even routine prenatal medical care and deliveries, so dropping abortion coverage for employees could actually raise health costs if it resulted inmore births.
Still, many employers worry that antiabortion groups want even stricter measures that would cut virtually all elective abortions from a federally mandated health benefits plan. That could force firms that wished to cover abortions to buy extra insurance for their employees. And once antiabortion groups found out, they might boycott companies that provided abortion benefits. That's all the more reason why many firms are hoping against hope that the "A" word issue will quietly go away.
Abortion coverage in large standard insurance plans
Routinely covered 64 pct.
Covered but with restrictions 21 pct.
Not covered 15 pct.
USN&WR -- Basic data: The Alan Guttmacher Institute
