The Patriot Post® · Guilty As (Sur)charged...
[Tuesday], the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan government agency, released a report confirming what FRC’s said repeatedly about ObamaCare: It subsidizes abortion. The exchange plans lack transparency, do not comply with the law on the abortion surcharge, and fund elective abortion with taxpayer funds. The report outlines state-by-state abortion coverage in healthcare plans sold on ObamaCare state exchanges, revealing that over 1,000 plans nationwide cover elective abortion. In fact, in eight states, 95-100 percent of the plans cover abortion-on-demand.
In New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Hawaii every plan includes elective abortion. Further, every plan that includes elective abortion coverage contains an abortion surcharge, which costs at a minimum of $12 per enrollee annually (everyone enrolled in such a plan is required by law to be billed separately from the overall healthcare premium).
The GAO study reveals, however, that insurers are not billing the surcharge separately and in some instances not even itemizing the cost of the abortion coverage in the overall premium. The accounting gimmick was used by supporters of ObamaCare to claim federal funds are kept separate from abortion. More specifically, GAO found that none of the 18 issuers called had billed the abortion surcharge separately. This single transfer of funds is in direct violation of ObamaCare’s requirements that insurance companies “collect from each enrollee in the plan (without regard to the enrollee’s age, sex, or family status) a separate payment” (ACA 1303(a)(2)(B)).
Over the past few months, FRC has been actively researching abortion coverage in the ObamaCare state exchanges. FRC has found that information regarding abortion coverage is not transparent due to ObamaCare’s secrecy clause and not uniformly available to customers. In many cases the information is not provided about abortion coverage until after the plan is purchased.
Because of this lack of transparency, Americans are being forced to play a game of moral Russian roulette when they select a health care plan. The GAO’s report reaffirms that the Senate needs to act and pass H.R. 7/S. 946, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2014,” sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) in order to protect taxpayers and offer real transparency.
Fragile China: Christians Feel a Renewed Crackdown on Faith
The Chinese government is ramping-up its persecution of Christians – but believers are standing strong against Communist repression. For example, in Wenzhou, sometimes called “the Jerusalem of China” because of its high concentration of Christians, “Communist Party authorities have demolished scores of churches and forcibly removed more than 300 church crosses.” Chinese church leaders say it’s “the worst anti-Christian crackdown in decades.” Christians are blocking government forces from attempting to destroy their churches, even though believers defending their churches are being beaten and dragged to jail.
What’s striking is that despite the despotic government’s best efforts, Christian faith in China is growing. According to Purdue University Prof. Fenggang Yang, “in a few years China will have more Christians than Communist Party members, which stood at more than 85 million in the last count. And in just 15 years, China could overtake the U.S. as the country with largest Christian population in the world.”
Many observers believe the Chinese government is fighting a losing battle; longtime international religious liberty advocate Doug Bandow recently noted that “Open Doors most recently ranked Beijing at No. 37 of 50 on its World Watch List, but China was in the top 10 only a decade ago.”
Advocates for religious liberty in China are also encouraged. One, Phil Sheldon, said earlier this year, “I have seen and heard Christianity expressed in public. I have been in restaurants with Christian music playing. I was moved to tears the first time I heard a real Christmas carol proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord in English, coming through the background music loud and clear. I have seen people sitting out in public, witnessing over a dog-eared, well-marked Bible.”
Bottom line: The Chinese government is attempting to contain a movement far too dynamic to be held down. The irony, of course, is that committed Christians make the best citizens of all. Let’s pray for our Chinese brothers and sisters, for their protection, courage, and continued remarkable testimony for their Lord and ours. We must also put feet to our prayers and continue to pressure our government to speak out on behalf of persecuted Christians whether they are in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Sudan.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.