7 health insurers tell state they’ll offer abortion coverage
By Kathleen Gray, Detroit Free Press | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The number of people who will be eligible to get the coverage is relatively small, according to health plan experts. And the cost to women who choose the coverage will be small -- ranging from
About 55% of the remaining Michiganders -- roughly 3 million people -- get their insurance from companies that self-insure, and aren't subject to the law passed last year requiring insurance companies to offer abortion coverage only as a separate rider.
Another 275,000 people get individual insurance plans, said
That leaves roughly 2.2 million people in the state who would be eligible to purchase the optional rider, and that doesn't account for gender or child-bearing age splits that would reduce the number even more.
"You keep peeling the onion and you get to a very small population of people who would want this," Murdock said.
The new law, which passed after Michigan Right to Life collected enough signatures to put the issue before
Abortion rights supporters have decried the legislation, calling it both "rape insurance," and cruel, forcing women to plan for things like the possibility of having to terminate a wanted pregnancy because of fetal abnormalities.
But abortion opponents -- who used the quirk in
Insurance companies had to file plans with the state Insurance and Financial Services department showing they planned to change their group plans to add the optional riders.
The insurance companies that will offer the riders, Buhs said, are: All
It's unclear how many companies could have set up the abortion riders because, until now, the state didn't track the number of companies that covered abortion in their insurance plans.
The number of abortions in
About 70% of women who get abortions pay for them out of pocket, according to the
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