Illinois
Names of Insurance Carriers and Their Elective-Abortion Coverage:
- Ambetter of Illinois (15): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (14): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- Bright Healthcare (11): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- Cigna Healthcare (25): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- Health Alliance (3): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- MercyCare Health Plans (3): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- *Molina Healthcare (5): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- *Oscar Health Plan, Inc. (10): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- Quartz (3): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- *United Healthcare (10): All plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
- WellFirst Health (9): No plans cover elective abortion (2022 plan documents).
Summary: There are a total of 108 plans offered by 11 insurance carriers on the 2022 Illinois exchange. WellFirst Health, which joined the exchange in 2021, is the only carrier that offers plans that do not cover elective abortion. Molina Healthcare, Oscar Health Plan, Inc. and United Healthcare all joined the exchange in 2022 and cover elective abortion in their plans.
Bright Health and Ambetter of Illinois were new to the Illinois exchange in 2021. Quartz Health Benefits Plans Corporation (formerly known as Gundersen Health Plan Inc) is an affiliate of UW Health, Gundersen Health System® and UnityPoint Health–Meriter.
Previously, none of the 71 Individual and Family plans offered on the Illinois exchange in 2019 covered elective abortion. However, On June 12, 2019, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law the Illinois Reproductive Health Act, that legalized elective abortion up to the moment of birth and mandated that all public and private insurance companies cover abortion on demand. As a result, all 2020 health plans on the exchange covered elective abortion. Litigation on the abortion coverage mandate is ongoing. For 2021, WellFirst Health’s Summary of Benefits and Coverage documents state that elective abortion is excluded from coverage in exchange plans.
There were a total of 5 insurance carriers being offered on the Illinois exchange in 2018. Highmark was new to the Illinois marketplace in 2018 while Humana was the only insurance carrier to leave the Illinois marketplace. In 2017, all 61 plans did not cover elective abortion. In 2018, all 94 plans did not cover elective abortion, a 33 plan increase in insurance options.
In 2018, Health Alliance did not provide information about their abortion coverage policy on their 2018 Summary of Benefits and Coverage documents, making it not in compliance with Obamacare regulations. In 2019, Health Alliance improved their Summary of Benefits and Coverage plan documents, clearly stating that their plans do not cover elective abortion. However, for 2020 some of the Summary of Benefits and Coverage plan documents of Health Alliance did not provide clarity on elective abortion coverage. As a result we had to rely on Health Alliance’s full 2020 Individual Public Marketplace Plan Policy documents to confirm that abortion is covered without restriction in all HMO, Catastrophic HMO, and POS plans.
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Exchange is part of the Federally-Facilitated Marketplace (F) or State-Run (S): F
Website: www.healthcare.gov
State Exchange Elective Abortion Opt-Out: No
Number of 2022 Insurance Carriers: 11
- Total Number of Plans: 108
- Number of Plans that Cover Elective Abortion: 99
- Number of Plans that Do Not Cover Elective Abortion: 9
- Number of Plans with Unknown Coverage: 0
Key:
Red= Covers elective abortion
Orange= Some plans cover elective abortion/Unknown
Green= Does not cover elective abortion
*Bold denotes that this Insurance Carrier is new to the 2022 Marketplace
ILLINOIS NEWS
General news regarding abortion coverage in Obamacare can be found here.
HealthInsurance.org: Illinois health insurance marketplace: history and news of the state’s exchange (October 27, 2021)