HOUSE FILE 576

BY  COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE

(SUCCESSOR TO HSB 57)

A BILL FOR

An Act prohibiting the inclusion of health plans that provide coverage for abortion in a state health benefit exchange and including effective date provisions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

   Section 1.  IOWA HEALTH BENEFIT EXCHANGE —— PROHIBITION OF COVERAGE FOR ABORTIONS.
   1.  If a health benefit exchange is established in this state pursuant to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. No. 111-148, as amended by the federal Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-152, a health benefit plan that offers coverage for abortions shall not be certified as a qualified health benefit plan to be offered through the exchange.
   2.  This Act shall not be construed as creating or recognizing a right to an abortion.
   3.  This Act does not make lawful an abortion that is unlawful.
   4.  Any provision of this Act that is held to be invalid or unenforceable by its terms, or as applied to any person or circumstance, shall be construed so as to give the provision the maximum effect permitted by law, unless such holding shall be one of utter invalidity or unenforceability, in which event such provision shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the remainder of this Act or the application of such provision to other persons not similarly situated or to other dissimilar circumstances.
   Sec. 2.  EFFECTIVE UPON ENACTMENT.  This Act, being deemed of immediate importance, takes effect upon enactment.
EXPLANATION
   This bill provides that if a health benefit exchange is established in this state pursuant to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a health benefit plan that offers coverage for abortions shall not be certified as a qualified health benefit plan to be offered through the exchange.
   The bill shall not be construed as creating or recognizing a right to an abortion or making lawful an abortion that is unlawful. A provision of the bill that is held to be invalid or unenforceable is severable so that the validity or enforceability of the remainder of the bill or application of the bill is not affected. 
   The bill takes effect upon enactment.