When he signed the Obamacare bill into law, President Barack Obama promised the American people that Obamacare would not pay for abortions — going as far as signing an executive order to that effect. A new GOA report shows he misled Americans.
Despite a promise President Obama made to lawmakers and the American public in a special joint session of Congress on healthcare reform that, “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion,” a new report released by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) today documents massive new public funding of abortion in the President’s healthcare law.
The GAO report also found that nearly all of the insurance issuers sampled are not itemizing the required separate abortion surcharge on its bills – confirming that the Obama Administration is ignoring the law’s abortion accounting gimmick.
“In an 11th hour ploy to garner a remnant of pro-life congressional Democrats absolutely needed for passage of ObamaCare, the President issued an executive order on March 24, 2010 that said: ‘the Act maintains current Hyde Amendment restrictions governing abortion policy and extends those restrictions to newly created health insurance exchanges’,” said Congressman Chris Smith, co-chairman of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. “It turns out that those ironclad promises made by the President himself are absolutely untrue.”
UPDATE: The Obama administration has responded with a promise to educate states on not funding abortions and said the reports claims are not entirely true.
The Obama administration said Tuesday it will make sure states and insurers understand the ban on using federal funds for abortion, but pushed back at Republican claims that a government audit report proves pro-life advocates’ worst fears about Obamacare.
No funds are permitted to cover abortions or administer plans that cover the service, as the Affordable Care Act requires issuers to collect a separate payment for coverage of the services, according to an official at the Health and Human Services Department.
The administration said it will make sure administrators are up to speed on the rules.
“[The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] will work with stakeholders, including states and issuers, so they fully understand and comply with the federal law prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortions,” agency spokesman Ben Wakana said.
GAO has found that in 2014, taxpayers are funding over a thousand Obamacare health plans that subsidize abortion on demand—even late-term abortion—in defiance of the Hyde AmendmentObama publicly said he would honor.
Among GAO’s findings:
- every ObamaCare taxpayer subsidized health insurance plan in New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island and Hawaii pays for abortion on demand
- in New York a 405 out of 426 ObamaCare plans subsidize abortion on demand
- in California—86 of 90
- in Massachusetts—109 0f 111
- in Oregon—92 of 102
- in Washington, DC—23 of 34
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) April 2014 estimate, between 2014 and 2024, taxpayer subsidies to buy ObamaCare health plans will total $855 billion, making taxpayers unwittingly complicit in abortion.
GAO found that even an accounting trick embedded in ObamaCare requiring premium payers to be accessed a separate monthly abortion surcharge is being completely ignored. The surcharge would have added some modicum of transparency so individuals would know whether they are purchasing a pro-life or pro-abortion health insurance plan if faithfully implemented. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska summed up the plain meaning of the law: “You have to write two checks.” According to GAO, none of the 18 insurance companies they interviewed are collecting the abortion surcharge separately.
Smith told LifeNews: “While the Democrat Leader famously said “We have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it,” during the debate on ObamaCare, now it turns out that consumers have to buy a plan to find out if abortion is in it—a complete lack of transparency. The majority of health insurance policy issuers interviewed by GAO reported that the consumers do not have access to information about whether the plan covers abortion.”
“Americans throughout the country have raised serious concerns that they find it nearly impossible to determine whether the plan they purchase finances the killing of unborn children—there is little or no transparency—hence the request by several members of Congress including Speaker Boehner that GAO investigate,” Smith said.
To end President Obama’s new massive funding of abortion on demand, last January the House of Representatives passed a bill authored by Smith—the “No Taxpayers Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act,” HR7. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not allowed a vote on the legislation.
“Today’s report is confirmation that ObamaCare is a massive expansion of abortion on demand, paid for by the taxpayers,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “ObamaCare breaks from the long tradition of the Hyde Amendment, which has prevented taxpayer funding of abortion with broad public support, and was not included in the law.”
“Shame on Senators like Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, and Kay Hagan – all of whom come from strong pro-life states and voted for taxpayer funding of abortion in ObamaCare,” continued Dannenfelser. “The GAO report is damning evidence that they betrayed their constituents in casting a vote for the largest expansion of taxpayer funding of abortion on demand since Roe. The No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act gives these Senators a prime opportunity to right a grave wrong, but they continue to stand with Harry Reid and the abortion lobby instead of their constituents by blocking a vote on it.”
