by Jason Coon
Like many of you, the CBA has been thoroughly engaged in the latest legal cases involving abortion. From the Texas Heartbeat Bill to Dobb’s v. Jackson’s Women Clinic, the loss of innocent human life through abortion is on the forefront of the minds of Catholic Americans.
CBA members are protected from having to comply with mandates that would force them to cover and pay for abortion in their plans. However, the federal and state governments, as well as insurers themselves, continue to look for ways to include these coverages without raising red flags.
Standardized processes and language are ways to bring these changes across many different platforms. This is common in the insurance industry today as they standardize plan language across many different plans and funding options. A more recent example involved a Catholic university and their student health plan covering abortion. Click HERE for details.
The benefit provided was worded as “when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or if it places the woman’s life in serious danger.” This insurance industry standard language poses a critical problem for Catholic employers in that it in fact allows for coverage of abortion in particular medical instances. More specifically, the plans are covering therapeutic abortion, which is the termination of pregnancy, performed when the pregnancy endangers the mother’s health or when the fetus has a condition incompatible with normal life.
Therapeutic abortion policies include a laundry list of broad medical conditions in which they are allowed to cover pregnancy termination. Normally medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes mellitus, renal disease, and congenital heart disease are listed. It’s important to understand Catholic teaching and ethical concerns associated with abortion and why exclusion language and definitions matters. The CBA continues to identify this issue in our member health plan reviews since starting our review process four years ago. We assist our membership updating their plan language for accurate moral compliance.
If you want to learn more of how your health plan can fall victim to standardization, check out this article on our Healthcare Insights Blog.
If you’re interested in learning what is in your health plan language, reach out to the CBA today. We are here to help. Learn more of how HERE.
Getting the most from your CBA Protections
Topic: Sterilization
How does your health plan exclude Sterilization?
In several of our plan reviews, we identified sterilization exclusion language that seems to address only “Sterilization for men.” This opens a great discussion as to why this is only allowed for men and should the exclusion language just read: “Sterilization.”
Did You Know?
Your CBA protections allow you to decline the coverage of counseling services related to sterilization. An example of what your EXCLUSION should say in this case would be: “Sterilization and related counseling”.
We can help! Connect with us today to learn more about our review process or to have a detailed review of your health plan.
Be sure to join us for one of our upcoming Lunch and Learn webinars in 2022 where we look to meet with members on their own SPD language.