Republicans, Trump ‘Very Concerned’ About Obamacare Deal Funding Abortion, Senator Says

As pro-lifers vigilantly track if the Trump administration’s deal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies will include abortion funding, a top Senate Republican said the issue is a priority for his party.

“Republicans are very, very, very concerned about that,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told The Daily Signal.

Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, proposed legislation to give subsidies directly to Obamacare enrollees rather than to insurance companies. The proposal would use the current funding for enhanced premium tax credits to fund flexible spending accounts, or FSAs, for Obamacare eligible enrollees.

Obamacare is exempted from the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer dollars from funding abortions, so Senate Republicans will need to find a way to prohibit abortion coverage under FSAs.

“Now we’re working through the legislation, and I anticipate the administration being just as concerned as we, and so how you get the HSA to do that, if you will, is something that we’re working on,” Cassidy said.

In order to end the record 43-day shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., offered Democrats a vote on an ACA funding bill by the end of the second week of December.

The Trump administration has not yet spoken on this aspect of the bipartisan Obamacare deal.

“They are still keeping it close to the chest,” a senior Republican Senate staffer told RealClearPolitics’ Phil Wegmann. “We’re keeping our ears open to see what the White House is going to recommend we do.”

Yet Cassidy said he expects Trump will share the urgency of Republicans and the pro-life movement to prevent the deal to expand the Affordable Care Act from funding abortion.

As Republicans work through how to prevent FSAs from funding abortion, legislation from Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., could serve as a model. He proposed a bill excluding expenses paid for an abortion from being qualified medical expenses eligible for reimbursement from certain tax-exempt savings accounts.

Under the bill, amounts paid for an abortion, other than an excluded abortion, are not qualified medical expenses eligible for reimbursement from a health savings account or flexible spending account.

Democrats may be unlikely to agree to a deal that limits funding for abortion. But the Trump administration has another option to prevent taxpayers from funding abortions through Obamacare.

The IRS can determine that abortion is not a qualified medical expense, and therefore, FSA and HSA money cannot be used on abortion plans. The Department of the Treasury did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on that option.

In the first Trump administration, the president finalized a rule requiring health insurers to send customers a bill for coverage of an elective abortion that is separate from their premium for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. But there has never been a rule excluding abortion from HSAs.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who is working with Cassidy and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., on talks with Democrats on a potential Obamacare compromise, shares Cassidy’s commitment to preventing ACA subsidies from funding abortion.

“Democrats are shutting down the government … because they want … funding for free abortions,” Scott said.