White House Reveals if Health Care Plan Will Protect Unborn Life
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /
President Donald Trump’s long-awaited health care framework will include pro-life protections, The Daily Signal has learned.
The White House on Thursday called on Congress to pass Trump’s new “Great Health Care Plan,” which promises to lower drug prices, lower insurance premiums by sending money directly to Americans, and improve price transparency in health care.
“These are commonsense actions that make up President Trump’s great health care plan, and they represent the most comprehensive and bold agenda to lower health care costs to have ever been considered by the federal government,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The plan doesn’t mention the Hyde Amendment, a necessity in any health care deal for many Republicans, prompting concern from pro-life leaders. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funding of elective abortions in health care appropriations.
But a White House official told The Daily Signal that the White House will work with Congress to ensure the “strongest possible pro-life protections.”
March for Life president, Jennie Lichter, expects the White House to keep this promise.
“The American people don’t want to see their tax dollars being used to pay for abortions. That’s clear and consistent in polling over the years,” she told The Daily Signal.
“I believe the president and his team know that, and I anticipate that they will stand strong and consistent with his own first term and second term, first year actions to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to support health plans that provide abortions in the upcoming health care negotiations.”
But the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenfelser, sounded skeptical.
“The ‘strongest possible’ is the Hyde amendment which in statute bars taxpayer funding of abortion,” she wrote on X.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told reporters that the White House would work with Congress on the specifics of the bill.
“There’ll be ongoing conversations, and we hope to be able to support with specific language for the legislation,” Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told reporters on a press call.
Part of the White House’s plan, sending money to the American people rather than insurance companies, was previously suggested by several Republican senators, including Lousiana’s Bill Cassidy and Idaho’s Mike Crapo in one bill, and Florida’s Rick Scott in another bill.
In both proposals, Americans could access federal subsidies through health savings accounts, which they could in turn spend directly on eligible health-related expenses.
Both legislative proposals included Hyde Amendment protections, prohibiting funding in the accounts to be spent on abortions.