Congressman Dan Lipinski (IL-3) is reacting to the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) new report on abortion coverage in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  The report shows that taxpayer dollars are currently going to pay for over one thousand health insurance plans that include abortion. 

Official statement from Rep. Lipinski:

“Under the Hyde Amendment, which has been included in every government funding bill for more than two decades, no federal taxpayer dollars are to be spent for abortions or health care plans that cover abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the mother’s life.  Despite my fight to include similar language in the ACA, an accounting gimmick was inserted into the bill instead to try to alleviate the concerns of the large majority of Americans who oppose their tax dollars paying for abortion.  This gimmick required health insurers to create a separate fund to pay for abortions and no taxpayer dollars were to go into that fund.  Instead, every enrollee in a plan was to pay their own money into that fund. 

“Today, we learned that the GAO has identified 1,036 plans that pay for abortions and do not have a separate fund free of taxpayer dollars, making it absolutely clear that taxpayer funds are being used to pay for abortions under the ACA.  This suggests the Administration is allowing health insurance companies to even ignore the accounting gimmick that they put into the law in order to gain support.

“In addition, the GAO has found that in five states there was not one health care plan offered on the state insurance exchange that did not cover abortion.  The ACA required that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ensure there was at least one insurance plan in each state that did not cover abortion except in the restricted circumstances.  Without the GAO study, we may never have known this because it was almost impossible for an individual shopping on the exchanges to find out whether or not abortion – or almost anything else – was covered under each plan.  This despite the promise of the exchanges providing clear explanations of what was covered under every plan.  Again, the Administration apparently has ignored provisions it had touted when the bill was being considered.

“I voted against the ACA in part because of the inclusion of taxpayer funding for abortion.  Now we see that provisions that were included in the law in regard to taxpayer funding of abortion and the promise of every American having the ability to purchase a plan on the exchange that didn’t cover abortion have not been implemented.  All of this is completely unacceptable.

“I will continue to fight to stop taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for abortions, as supported by a large majority of Americans.  But until we can get that accomplished, the least that we can do is to make sure that the law is followed.  That is something every American should agree with.”

Lipinski is the cosponsor of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (HR 5939), the Patients First Act (H.R. 877), and the Protect Life Act (HR 5111).

The information in this report only applies to 2014 plans.  It does not answer questions for the consumers that will shop in the 2015 Open Season.  For 2015, Lipinski is calling for plans to clearly and prominently disclose abortion coverage.