15 J. Am. Physicians & Surgeons: 'ObamaCare': What Is In It?

• Author: Orient, Jane M.
• Position: Reprint

It took about a week just to skim through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is 906 pages long in single-spaced statutory format. All provisions actually increase the cost of providing care, although they redistribute the burden of meeting the costs from subscribers to insurers, patients to providers, or one group of taxpayers to another. The key themes are redistribution of wealth, political and racial favoritism, and expansion of the welfare state.

The wording related to abortion coverage (p. 50, [section] 1303) is artful and complex. Public funding is prohibited for some abortions, but allowed for others. Community health centers may provide abortions, and may receive federal funds, but the funds must be segregated. In any insurance exchange, the Secretary shall assure that there is at least one plan that provides coverage of abortion and at least one plan that does not. The federal premium subsidies are not to be used to bear the insurance risk for abortion.

Individuals or institutions refusing to participate in "assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing" may not be discriminated against by government, entities receiving federal financial...