Michigan Senate passes bills to stop ObamaCare from funding abortions

(Photo credit: Maia C on Flickr)

Three bills were read and passed in Michigan’s Senate this Thursday. All three are aimed at allowing employers the ability to determine whether or not employees will receive coverage for abortion in health care plans. Employers who want to provide abortion coverage will then have to pay for the addition insurance rider.

Senate Bill 612

This bill, which passed on a 27-11 vote, seeks to amend the Insurance Code of 1956.  It states that “[a] qualified health plan … shall not provide coverage for elective abortion.”

Abortion coverage will be at the discretion of the employer: “an employer may purchase a option rider to provide coverage for an elective abortion.” The bill then states two requirements that must be met for this rider to be valid, one of which is that it is the employer who “pays the entire premium amount for the rider and the cost of the rider is not factored into any premium amount for which individual employees contribute … either directly or through a payroll deduction.” The other is that notice of the rider be given to employees.

Senate Bill 613

This bill, which passed on a 27-10 vote, extends the provision of the bill discussed above to the Nonprofit Health Care Corporation Reform Act.

Senate Bill 614

This bill seeks to put teeth into the above two bills by amending the Public Health Code to provide penalties for violation of the bills.

Passing on a 28-10 vote, this bill provides that the reimbursement for abortions through a health care plan are prohibited “unless the reimbursement sought or accepted is from an optional rider,” as provided for by the above two amendments. If this bill becomes law, the penalties for violating this law would be “a civil fine of up to $10,000.00 per violation.” The attorney general is given authority to enforce it.

If these bills pass the House, they will be given to Governor Snyder to sign or veto.