Obamacare and Abortion Subsidies

Obamacare is broken in so many ways. Higher premiums, less coverage, lost doctors, more paperwork… and now taxpayers subsidizing abortion. The independent government watchdog, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), just released a report that 1,036 insurance plans cover elective abortion and receive federal subsidies. In plain English: over 1,000 insurance plans use your tax dollars to subsidize elective abortion. It’s happening in every state – even Texas.

But there’s more. Every state is required to offer at least one plan that doesn’t cover abortion so each enrollee has an option to not put their premiums towards others’ abortion on demand. But five states don’t. Exchanges are also supposed to disclose which plans cover abortion and which do not. But most don’t. And all plans need to keep funds for abortions separate from the rest of the pool so only those who opt for abortion coverage subsidize abortions. But so many don’t.

And the Administration has done nothing about any of these violations. The House has offered two clear solutions to these problems, even before this report came out. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act passed with my support the House in January. And I’ve cosponsored the Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act to require exchanges and plans to clearly designate which options cover abortion. While we ultimately need to fully repeal Obamacare, no federal subsidies should be going towards abortion. The Administration needs to stop selectively choosing which laws they will or will not enforce.