Life News is reporting on the fiery exchange which took place between Sebelius and Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) who repeatedly asked the Secretary why she had not yet provided the list she promised during hearings in October.
"You promised last time you were here to provide me with a national list of those who cover and those who do not cover abortion and abortion services," Rep. Shimkus said. "We have yet to receive that list. . . . We need that list madam secretary . . . When will you provide it?"
She responded: "Sir, every plan lists plan benefits and the one plan benefit that they must list by law is abortion services, so as a shopper goes on, I would highly recommend that they look in the plan benefits section…”
Rep. Shimkus interrupted her, saying that "last time I was here I held up numerous policies that would not explain that . . . you promised to provide a list of those insurance plans. All we're asking is for you to keep your promises . . . will you provide us a list?"
Sebelius continued to dodge the question until Rep. Shimkus' time for questioning ran out.
This list is critical for those Americans who do not wish to buy plans that cover abortion. This is because in order to evade the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the government from directly funding abortion, Obamacare has directed that insurers, rather than the government, collect a secondary premium, or surcharge, for the abortion coverage in their policies. It also stipulates that this surcharge cannot be disclosed until the time of enrollment and can only be mentioned in the "Summary of Benefits and Coverage", essentially hiding it in the fine print so that even employers may not know if their plans cover abortion.
When pressed on this point during hearings in October, Sebelius promised to provide the public with a list of the policies being offered on federal exchanges, and on state exchanges where abortion coverage is permitted.
At this point, it does not appear likely that the government will ever produce the requested list. This leaves consumers with the burden of searching through the fine print of every policy they are considering to determine if their hard-earned dollars will be used to procure abortion services.
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