Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review Of What It Is And What It Is Not

Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is Not10/28/13III. MethodologyProCon.org selected frequently asked questions about Obamacare after reading hundreds of articles,studies, speeches, and reports from diverse sources including the Department of Health of HumanServices, Institute of Medicine, Kaiser Family Foundation, Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation,Congressional Budget Office, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, Harvard School of Public Health, andmany more.We have worked to pose questions in a nonpartisan manner. We framed questions in a way whereresponses could be categorized as pro (yes), con (no), or not clearly pro or con (debated). Responses toall 62 questions were researched and selected based on: clarity (We included the most clear and compelling statements that we could find.) directness (Responses that directly answer our questions.) length (100-200 word responses were preferred.) most recent (Given the ongoing understanding of Obamacare, more recent statements werepreferred over older ones.) authority of source (Health care experts and top policy officials were preferred.) diversity of arguments and sources balance in number and length of arguments per questionWe included some responses that met most but not all of the above criteria when those responses wereup to our quality standards and the best we could find.While we prefer to have the same number and length of pros and cons for each question, in some of thequestions, the length of one column may be longer or have one or two more arguments.All responses include the source’s name, his/her advanced degrees (Master’s or higher), source’s title,date of statement, and where published.Passages from Obamacare are quoted as “General Reference” responses and include the section numberand page number where the quote appears in the official version of the legislation.Questions were labeled “Debated” when they did not have a clear pro (yes) or con (no) response.Responses to debated questions were put in side-by-side pro and con columns. Questions that did nothave debated responses – meaning they had clear pro (yes) or con (no) responses – do not appear inside-by-side format. ProCon.org, 2013- 10 -

Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is Not10/28/13Same position responses (pros, cons, etc.) were arranged in random order within the question.Questions and responses were assembled in a single PDF document for easy distribution to media,legislators, and the general public.Future revisions to the document (if any) will indicate date last updated.This review was funded by ProCon.org.For interviews about this research specifically or ProCon.org in general, please contact Kamy Akhavan,President & Managing Editor of ProCon.org, at 310-587-1407 or kamy@procon.org. ProCon.org, 2013- 11 -

Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is Not10/28/13IV. 65 Questions and Responses on ObamacareA.Medical Effects of Obamacare--Abortion--1. Does Obamacare fund abortion services for cases other than rape, incest, or tosave the life of the mother? – DEBATEDGENERAL REFERENCE 1The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Section 1303, "Special Rules,” page 50, signed into lawon Mar. 23, 2010, available at www.thomas.gov, states:"(a) STATE OPT-OUT OF ABORTION COVERAGE.—(1) IN GENERAL.—A State may elect to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange insuch State if such State enacts a law to provide for such prohibition.(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of this title (or any amendment made by this title)—(i) nothing in this title (or any amendment made by this title), shall be construed to require a qualifiedhealth plan to provide coverage of services described in subparagraph (B)(i) or (B)(ii) as part of itsessential health benefits for any plan year.(B) ABORTION SERVICES.—(i) ABORTIONS FOR WHICH PUBLIC FUNDING IS PROHIBITED.—The services described in thisclause are abortions for which the expenditure of Federal funds appropriated for the Department ofHealth and Human Services is not permitted, based on the law as in effect as of the date that is 6 monthsbefore the beginning of the plan year involved.(ii) ABORTIONS FOR WHICH PUBLIC FUNDING IS ALLOWED.—The services described in this clause are abortions for which the expenditure of Federal fundsappropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services is permitted, based on the law as ineffect as of the date that is 6 months before the beginning of the plan year involved."GENERAL REFERENCE 2Barack H. Obama, JD, 44th President of the United States, stated in his Mar. 21, 2010 Executive Order13535, available at www.whitehouse.gov:"Following the recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (‘the Act’), it isnecessary to establish an adequate enforcement mechanism to ensure that Federal funds are not used for ProCon.org, 2013- 12 -

Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is Not10/28/13abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would beendangered), consistent with a longstanding Federal statutory restriction that is commonly known as theHyde Amendment. The purpose of this Executive Order is to establish a comprehensive, governmentwide set of policies and procedures to achieve this goal.The Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends thoserestrictions to the newly-created health insurance exchanges.The Act specifically prohibits the use of tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments to pay forabortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered)in the health insurance exchanges that will be operational in 2014."NOT CLEARLY PRO OR CON 1Jon O. Shimabukuro, JD, Legislative Analyst at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), stated in hisJuly 9, 2012 report "Abortion: Judicial History and Legislative Response," available at www.crs.gov:"Under ACA, the issuer of a qualified health plan will determine whether to provide coverage for eitherelective abortions or abortions for which federal funds appropriated for HHS are permitted. It appearsthat a plan issuer could also decide not to cover either type of abortion. ACA also permits a state toprohibit abortion coverage in exchange plans by enacting a law with such a prohibition.ACA indicates that an issuer of a qualified health plan that provides coverage for elective abortionscannot use any funds attributable to a premium tax credit or cost-sharing subsidy to pay for suchservices. The issuer of a qualified health plan that provides coverage for elective abortions will berequired to collect two separate payments from each enrollee in the plan: one payment that reflects anamount equal to the portion of the premium for coverage of health services other than elective abortions;and another payment that reflects an amount equal to the actuarial value of the coverage for electiveabortions."PRO (yes)CON (no)PRO 1Chris Smith, US Representative (R-New Jersey),stated the following in his Mar. 15, 2012 pressrelease "Obama’s Abortion Funding Plan,"available at www.chrissmith.house.gov:“This week’s Obama abortion funding ruleconfirms that publicly funded insurance plansWILL include abortion on demand. Using anaccounting gimmick, the premium payers will paythe President’s abortion surcharge of at least onedollar per month. This separate charge will godirectly into an abortion fund. ProCon.org, 2013CON 1The White House website posted the following onits webpage "Myths & Facts," available atwww.whitehouse.gov (accessed Sep. 6, 2012):"Health insurance reform will NOT use your taxdollars to fund abortions.The health insurance reform legislation maintainsthe status quo of no federal funding for abortions,except in cases of rape, incest or when the life ofthe woman is endangered."- 13 -

Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is Not10/28/13CON 2Requiring the segregation of funds into allocationaccounts—a mere bookkeeping exercise is a cheappolitical trick designed to circumvent longstandingprohibitions on taxpayer funding of abortion. Thisis an unprecedented break with longstandingfederal policy on funding for abortion.Undoubtedly many enrollees will be shocked whenthey get a bill for the Obama abortion surcharge.Once enrolled, even pro-life Americans will beforced to pay for other people’s abortions.”PRO 2Americans United for Life stated in its Mar. 29,2012 newsletter "As the Supreme Court HearsArguments, AUL Challenges Constitutionality ofAbortion Expansion in Obamacare," available atwww.action.aul.org:Erin Shields, a spokeswoman for the Departmentof Health and Human Services, stated in her Apr.2, 2012 article, “Obamacare 'Abortion Surcharge':The Facts Behind the Rumor,” available online atwww.huffingtonpost.com:"Under the new health care law, federal fundscontinue not to be used for abortion services,except those in cases of rape or incest or where thelife of the woman is endangered. No one will berequired to choose a plan that covers these servicesand no taxpayer dollars will be spent on them.Before choosing a health plan, consumers willknow whether the plan covers these services. Andif it does, payments will be made into a separateaccount to ensure no federal dollars fund theseservices."CON 3"Obamacare fails to comprehensively prohibit theuse of federal tax dollars for abortions or abortioncoverage, and that this loophole can easily beexploited.Obamacare’s provisions permitting health plans toprovide abortion coverage to enrollees throughstate Exchanges are inconsistent with existinglaw—the Hyde Amendment.Americans in these plans will be required to pay aportion of their insurance premium directly into apot of money used exclusively for abortions. Welearned this month that the Obama Administration,as expected, is moving forward with theimplementation of this premium scheme.Norman K. Moon, JD, Senior US District Judgeserving in the Western District of Virginia, statedthe following, on Nov. 30, 2010, in his opinion ina lawsuit filed by Liberty University challengingObamacare:" [T]he Act contains strict safeguards atmultiple levels to prevent federal funds from beingused to pay for abortion services beyond those incases of rape or incest, or where the life of thewoman would be endangered.In plans that do provide non-excepted abortioncoverage, a separate payment for nonexceptedabortion services must be made by thepolicyholder to the insurer, and the insurer mustThe ‘preventive care’ mandate in Obamacare could deposit those payments in a separate allocationbe used to require insurance plans to coveraccount that consists solely of those payments; theabortions or abortion-inducing drugs. The Obamainsurer must use only the amounts in that accountAdministration achieved this by relying on a nonto pay for non-excepted abortion services."elected advisory committee of abortionadvocates.”CON 4PRO 3 ProCon.org, 2013Barack H. Obama, JD, 44th President of the- 14 -

Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is NotThe Family Research Council stated in its Mar. 13,2012: article "ObamaCare: Home of the 1Abortions," available at www.frc.org:"Today, in its final rules on health care exchanges,the administration officially welcomed Americansto the abortion industry. As part of the newregulations on how state health exchanges willwork, anyone enrolled in an insurance plan thatcovers abortion will be responsible for sharing thecost."PRO 4Matthew Clark, JD, Associate Counsel with theAmerican Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) inMedia and Government Affairs, stated in his Jan.18, 2012 article "How ObamaCare Uses TaxpayerMoney to Pay for Abortions," available atwww.aclj.org:".[T]he law specifically provides that state healthexchanges may cover abortions unless the stateenacts specific legislation prohibiting abortioncoverage. Moreover, the law’s requirement thatinsurance providers cover ‘preventive services’and preventative care are so broadly defined thatthey could be used to force coverage of abortionsand abortion related drugs. Thus, all Americans areforced to purchase health insurance that couldcover abortion and in some cases is required tocover abortion.10/28/13United States, stated the following in his Mar. 24,2010 executive order 13535 "EnsuringEnforcement and Implementation of AbortionRestrictions in the Patient Protection andAffordable Care Act," available atwww.whitehouse.gov:"Following the recent enactment of the PatientProtection and Affordable Care Act (the ‘Act’), itis necessary to establish an adequate enforcementmechanism to ensure that Federal funds are notused for abortion services (except in cases of rapeor incest, or when the life of the woman would beendangered), consistent with a longstandingFederal statutory restriction that is commonlyknown as the Hyde Amendment.The Act specifically prohibits the use of tax creditsand cost-sharing reduction payments to pay forabortion services (except in cases of rape or incest,or when the life of the woman would beendangered) in the health insurance exchanges thatwill be operational in 2014. The Act also imposesstrict payment and accounting requirements toensure that Federal funds are not used for abortionservices in exchange plans (except in cases of rapeor incest, or when the life of the woman would beendangered).The Act establishes a new Community HealthCenter (CHC) Fund within HHS, which providesadditional Federal funds for the community healthcenter program. Existing law prohibits thesecenters from using Federal funds to provideabortion services (except in cases of rape or incest,or when the life of the woman would beendangered).".[T]here is no language in ObamaCare thatprevents tax dollars from being used to pay forabortions. The proposed amendment toObamaCare that would have prevented all taxpayerfunding for abortions that was debated inCON 5Congress, known as the Stupak-Pitts Amendment,was not included in the final bill signed byBrooks Jackson, Director of FactCheck.org, statedPresident Obama.in a July 22, 2010 article, "Taxpayer-FundedAbortions in High Risk Pools," available at.[T]he Executive Order signed by Presidentwww.factcheck.org:Obama, which he claimed would ‘ensure thatFederal funds are not used for abortion services,’"The claim that the new federal health care law ProCon.org, 2013- 15 -

Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is Notdid not prevent taxpayer funds from being used forabortions.The bottom line is because the law fails to containany provision actually preventing federal fundsfrom being used to subsidize insurance plans thatcover abortions, ObamaCare greatly increasestaxpayer funding for abortions."10/28/13will use taxpayer funds to pay for abortionsthrough 'high-risk pools' originated when theNational Right to Life Committee issued a pressrelease July 13. It said that Washington hadapproved a new insurance program that 'will coverany abortion that is legal in Pennsylvania.'Abortion foes also raised alarms about similarfederally subsidized insurance pools being puttogether in New Mexico and Maryland.PRO 5Erick Cantor, JD, US Representative (R-VA),introduced the Repeal Obamacare Act (HR. 6079)on July 9, 2012. The text of the act, available atthomas.loc.gov, stated in part:"While President Obama promised that nothing inthe law would fund elective abortion, the lawexpands the role of the Federal Government infunding and facilitating abortion and plans thatcover abortion. The law appropriates billions ofdollars in new funding without explicitlyprohibiting the use of these funds for abortion, andit provides Federal subsidies for health planscovering elective abortions. Moreover, the laweffectively forces millions of individuals topersonally pay a separate abortion premium inviolation of their sincerely held religious, ethical,or moral beliefs."State and federal officials have since scrambled toclarify their intentions. Pennsylvania officialsissued a statement on July 15 saying that for anyabortions performed because of reasons other thanrape, incest or a threat to the mother’s life, women'will have to pay for them out their own pocket.'And New Mexico backed down just as quickly,issuing a July 15 statement saying 'electiveabortion is not and has never been intended to be abenefit.'. [W]hatever Pennsylvania officials intended thestated federal policy is now clear: No abortionswill be covered by the temporary risk pools exceptfor those in cases of rape or incest, or to save thelife of the mother."--Birth Control-2. Does Obamacare require health insurers to cover birth control? – YESGENERAL REFERENCE 1The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Section 2713, "Coverage of Preventative HealthServices," pages 13-14, signed into law on Mar. 23, 2010, available at www.thomas.gov, states:"(a) IN GENERAL.—A group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individualhealth insurance coverage shall, at a minimum provide coverage for and shall not impose any costsharing requirements for— ProCon.org, 2013- 16 -

Obamacare: A Nonpartisan Review of What It Is and What It Is Not10/28/13(1) evidence-based items or services that have in effect a rating of 'A' or 'B' in the currentrecommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force;(2) immunizations that have in effect a recommendation from the Advisory Committee on ImmunizationPractices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with respect to the individual involved; and(3) with respect to infants, children, and adolescents, evidence-informed preventive care and screeningsprovided for in the comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources and ServicesAdministration.(4) with respect to women, such additional preventive care and screenings not described in paragraph (1)as provided for in comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources and ServicesAdministration for purposes of this paragraph.(5) for the purposes of this Act, and for the purposes of any other provision of law, the currentreco

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