Posts Tagged ‘mandated health coverage’
UNC System mandates Ins Covg w/ Elective Abortion Incld’d
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
I share this from a friend Jordan Greene, a student at UNCC:
Just under a month ago in late July, the Students for Life of America discovered that the University of North Carolina system was requiring all students enrolled in any of its seventeen institutions to have some sort of healthcare insurance in order to attend school during that upcoming semester. In doing such, the UNC system provided an alternative, or rather mandated, that students who do not have their own health insurance or cannot afford to have their own plan must purchase the plan offered by the UNC system through Pearce & Pearce Inc, at comparably a lower rate than most any other private insurance company I have found.
However, the issue that the Students for Life of America discovered is that the coverage provided under the Pearce & Pearce Inc. plan, which students who cannot afford their own coverage must purchase, just so happens to cover up to $500 toward elective abortions and has an 80% PPO coverage rate for the same. Simply put, the UNC system first saw fit to mandate health coverage, and then they saw fit to take it a step further and force those who have to purchase the UNC system’s plan to fund the wicked and immoral act of killing the unborn child without regard to the student’s religious or political beliefs and conscience. After the Students for Life brought the issue to the front burner, the UNC Board of Governors took one-step in the right direction, and issued a statement that students will now be given the option to opt out of the abortion coverage and I applaud them for their decision. However, note that I said one-step in the right direction as it is far from solved in my opinion.
I, being a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, among those who cannot afford to obtain their own health insurance coverage am required to purchase the school’s plan through Pearce & Pearce Inc. For this reason, since this mandate was in effect in at least the past academic school year as well, I was required to pay for funding of abortions by the UNC Board of Governors to attend school, for my education, of which I was greatly disappointed in the UNC system for. At this point, the Board of Governors I imagine would say that by allowing students to opt out of the abortion coverage that that student no longer funds abortions, however I beg to differ.
As explained by the Students for Life of America on their new website www.noabortioninhealthcare.com:
“Federal grant money is directed to accredited colleges and universities from U.S. taxpayers through the Federal Student Aid Program. Student eligibility for federal grants is determined by the difference in the student’s ability to pay and the total ‘cost of attendance’ for the school. This amount equals the student’s eligibility for federal funds. As stated by the UNC System, the cost of their abortion health care plan, if the student chooses to keep abortion in their plan, is added to the student’s ‘cost of attendance’ calculation. This in turn, increases the student’s need for federal funds. Because of this increase in need, additional federal funds could be directed to the student to help cover this increase in cost.”
Beyond the possibility that the UNC system’s health insurance may violate federal law is the fact that all-in-all by not completely removing elective abortion coverage from their mandated health coverage, the Board of Governors have still failed. By allowing students to keep the abortion coverage, the UNC system is still forcing the taxpayers, both in North Carolina and across the nation, to fund the murderous act of abortion. How are they still forcing students who opt out to fund abortions? They do such by appropriating federal and state grants and loans from taxpayer dollars to student financial aid that is given to pay for tuition and the UNC system’s mandated health coverage for those who potentially still have abortion coverage on their plan.
Now let me take this one-step further. It is the fact that the UNC system included abortion on their mandated plan that got the Students for Life involved and that has caused me to oppose it with all I can, however I honestly believe that to solve the issue, one must return the issue to its basic root. That root of the problem being that the UNC system should have never required its students to obtain health insurance in the first place to attend their public educational institutes. If a student can afford their own insurance then let them have insurance, but the State should never require students to have health insurance in order to obtain a college education, to have the opportunity to move forward in life with that education.
I would be perfectly content if the UNC system offered its students the ability to voluntarily enroll in its health insurance plan, providing that abortion be in no way covered, and did not require students to have health insurance at all if they chose not to. I believe that, and at this rate, only that would be in line with the ideals of liberty and freedom by giving the choice to have insurance to the student’s free will, instead of mandating such. This would also allow the UNC system to fall in line with the NC State Constitution in Article I Section 13 on Religious Liberty by not violating the conscience of the student or taxpayer by forcing them to pay for an act that they view as abhorrent or sinful.
I am glad that the UNC Board of Governors took one-step in the right direction on this ever-important issue; however, it is just one-step along the walk across the room to the goal, which I hold to be liberty. The Board of Governors needs to complete their walk across the room by ending their mandated health coverage to attend a UNC school and give the students life back to the student and protecting the life of the unborn.
Copyright © 2010 Jordon M. Greene. Jordon M. Greene is the President and Founder of the North Carolinians for Free and Proper Elections PAC, a member of the Constitution Party of North Carolina State Executive and Ballot Access Committees, a political science student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and served as campaign manager for the Bryan Greene 2008 Congressional Campaign Committee
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