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Tell Nebraska to Allow Insurance Companies to Cover Abortion Care
  1. Signatures
    452 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. The Governor of NE (+ 2 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • The Governor of NE
      • The NE State Senate
      • The NE State House
  2. Created By
    A S
    Winthrop, ME
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as the 2009 health care reform legislation), states have the option of prohibiting insurance companies from offering health insurance plans that cover abortion care on the health insurance exchanges that will be created in the coming years. Nebraska is an anti-choice state (it received an F rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America) and a bill to exercise this option has already been introduced in the 2011 legislative session.

Senator Beau McCoy wants to go even further by prohibiting any private insurance company from offering plans in Nebraska that cover abortion care, even if those plans are purchased privately, outside of the health insurance exchange!  You can read more about it here.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 87 percent of typical employer-based insurance plans covered abortion. Under McCoy's bill, those plans couldn't be offered in Nebraska, leaving even more people uninsured. 

Since Nebraska is such an anti-choice state, arguments for the validity of choice will likely not be as effective, so this petition argues that prohibiting nearly 90 percent of the offered health insurance plans would leave even more people without health insurance, in a state that already has nearly 30 percent of its non-Senior population uninsured. 

Photo from: RobotSkirts

 

 

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Please oppose LB 22, An Act to Adopt the Mandate Opt-Out and Insurance Coverage Clarification Act

Greetings,

I'm writing to urge you to oppose LB 22, the Mandate Opt-Out and Insurance Coverage Clarification Act. This act would prohibit health insurance companies offering plans in the state of Nebraska that provide coverage for abortion care, and according to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 80 percent of typical employer-offered health plans provide abortion coverage. Under LB 22, these plans would be prohibited in Nebraska, leaving even more people without health insurance.

As taxpayers, we do not have to financially contribute to abortion: we have a choice. LB 22 mistakenly states that the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as the 2009 health care reform legislation) would allow federal funding of abortion. This is untrue. Federal funding for abortion has been banned since the Hyde Amendment was enacted in 1976, and this practice was further enshrined by Executive Order 13535 issued by President Obama on March 24, 2010. Federal funds cannot be used to pay for abortions. But we should not restrict individuals from purchasing private insurance that covers abortion since such a change would eliminate 87% of the employer based plans.

We cannot eliminate health insurance coverage for so many people. There are already too many Nebraskans without health insurance: Families USA estimated that nearly 30 percent of Nebraskans under the age of 65 went without health insurance in 2007-2008 (http://familiesusa2.org/assets/pdfs/americans-at-risk/nebraska.pdf) LB 132 is a bad bill that would leave even more Nebraskans uninsured. Please oppose it.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

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