I wonder how this story happened. Did a couple of lefty insurance agents at Cigna leak it to Politico unbidden or did Politico go calling around at Cigna until it found a pair of lefty insurance agents willing to leak?
Or are the sources actually pro-life agents irritated at the RNC’s stance here?
Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.
Informed of the coverage, RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho told POLITICO that the policy pre-dates the tenure of current RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
“The current policy has been in effect since 1991, and we are taking steps to address the issue,” Gitcho said…
According to several Cigna employees, the insurer offers its customers the opportunity to opt out of abortion coverage – and the RNC did not choose to opt out.
The NRCC’s policy doesn’t cover abortion, which somewhat mitigates the embarrassment. Conservative Twitterers are upset, but given how long the policy’s been on the books at the RNC, I wonder if Steele and the rest of the current leadership even knew that abortion was covered. It’s a needless political headache, especially in a year when health-care reform is on the table; the only way it makes sense is if there are a whole lot of elective abortions happening at RNC HQ, which would be … a much bigger political headache. So assuming it’s a matter of bureaucratic inertia, which former chairman deserves the blame for getting the ball rolling? Presumably the guy who was there in 1991 — a.k.a. Lee Atwater(!). Exit question: Why didn’t he opt out of the abortion provision?
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