planned-parenthoodThe following comes from a Nov. 21 story on the website of the Heritage Foundation.

Taxpayer funding streams from Obamacare and mandates on insurers could provide increased funding and coverage for abortion providers. Through grants awarded for promotional efforts and new coverage requirements on insurers providing qualified plans, the health care law could benefit Planned Parenthood and other providers of elective abortion.

The coercive, one-size-fits-all regime of Obamacare is already set to increase costs and further burden taxpayers. The fact that bureaucrats are using the law to funnel more tax dollars to an organization that performed almost 1 million abortions in the past three years aloneshould give policymakers another reason to stop further implementation of the health care law.

Fears of low enrollment in Obamacare exchanges have prompted both federal and state governments to fund an army of taxpayer-compensated community groups—including Planned Parenthood affiliates—that will market the health care law and facilitate people’s entrance into the health plan marketplaces.

In mid-August, the Obama Administration announced the award of over $655,000 in taxpayer grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates in Iowa, Montana, and New Hampshire for “navigators” to help enroll Americans in federally facilitated insurance exchanges under Obamacare.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen states that have set up their own exchanges plan to spend tens of millions in taxpayer dollars funding community group “assisters” to promote their marketplaces. Many of those “assisters” could also include local Planned Parenthood affiliates, providing additional streams of Obamacare funding to the largest abortion provider in the nation. The District of Columbia awarded $375,000—one of the largest “assister” grants in the District—to Planned Parenthood Metropolitan D.C. to help enroll citizens in the District’s state-based health care exchange.

Likewise, California, Minnesota, and Vermont have awarded a total of over $700,000 to local Planned Parenthood affiliates to aid individuals’ enrollment in their exchanges, and many more states will likely follow suit.

Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics could also benefit from an Obamacare requirement that qualified insurance plans cover a sufficient number of “essential community providers”.

These providers are defined in Obamacare as health care providers and hospitals that predominantly serve “low-income, medically underserved individuals.” These organizations include federally qualified health clinics, hospitals, and Title X family planning centers, among other providers.

In order to sell a qualified health plan on an exchange, insurers must cover a minimum of 10 percent of these providers in a plan’s coverage area. Insurers must offer contracts to providers in each provider category in each county covered, including at least one family planning clinic or Title X “look-alike” clinic. According to a non-exhaustive list of providers released by the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year, those family planning providers could include more than 400 local Planned Parenthood affiliates….

To read the entire story, click here.