Obamacare Fact Or Fiction? Congress Receives Federal Funds For Abortion Coverage Under The ACA
Under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP), members of Congress and their staffers are currently denied access to abortion coverage. But, according to reports, that may change in the coming months as federal employees transition from the FEHBP to health plans under the Affordable Care Act. Those reports are wrong.
On Aug. 7, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo that outlines how Congress and congressional staff will be provided health insurance through the health care exchanges made possible by the Affordable Care Act. Federal workers will transitioned from their Federal Employee Health Benefits Plans (FEHBP) to coverage available to the general public on the exchanges. Many plans offered through the health insurance exchanges do provide abortion coverage.
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"To comply with [federal law], they would have to advise members and congressional staff that they can only choose plans that do not cover abortions," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee. "And, of course, they would have to enforce it."
If the concern is that federal funds may go towards abortions under Obamacare, those concerns are unfounded. Judy Waxman, an attorney for the National Women’s Law Center, told the Associated Press that it is insurers — not the government — who decide whether to provide abortion coverage. If insurance providers do provide coverage for abortion, they are not allowed to use federal funds to pay for it.
"No federal money will go to abortion," she said.
On Friday, spokesman Thomas Richards echoed Waxman’s sentiments.
"No federal funds, including administrative funds, are used to cover abortions or administer plans that cover abortions,” said Richards. “This is true for FEHBP and the marketplaces [under the Affordable Care Act]. Nothing restricts a federal employee from seeking additional coverage of elective abortion services at 100 percent premium cost to the enrollee."
So why the big hoopla?
Outside of the usual pro-life anti-Obamacare sentiments, federal employees are increasingly concerned about the quality of their coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Many of them were satisfied with their coverage under the FEHBP.
According to Wall Street Cheat Sheet, Republican Rep. Dave Camp introduced legislation in April that would make federal employees enroll in Obamacare rather than the FEHBP.
"If the Obamacare exchanges are good enough for the hardworking Americans and small businesses the law claims to help, then they should be good enough for the president, vice president, Congress, and federal employees," Camp’s spokeswoman said in a statement.
As federal employees prepare to transition to new health care plans available to the larger public, they are expressing their displeasure with the move.
“It would be unjust to change the rules after I have spent the majority of my working life in a public service career that is not as lucrative as the private sector when the career decision to forgo private sector lucre now was in large part made in response to the promise that benefits would be much better for public service employees when they retire,” writes one public employee. “I relied upon and take action in response to the promises that were made, so not living up to the promises amount to a fraud that changed my entire career path.”
For more on the Affordable Care Act, visit HealthCare.gov.
