The federal government is currently in shutdown mode after Democrats pushed to continue taxpayer support for health care plans that cover abortions and transgender medical procedures.
In the legislative finagling prior to the shutdown on Wednesday, Democrats pushed to extend the Obamacare enhanced subsidies, which are set to expire on Dec. 31, and use taxpayer dollars to subsidize plans that cover medical procedures many Americans find morally objectionable.
The Daily Signal spoke with Chris Jacobs, the founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, a policy shop located in Washington, about the specifics of a continuing resolution supported by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Jacobs elaborated on how the Obamacare subsidies affect health care coverage.
“Obamacare subsidies are subsidies that pay for a portion of the premiums. The subsidies reduce the monthly premium costs for most enrollees. Most enrollees on the exchanges have some, at least some, and in many cases, all of their premium subsidies, subsidized such that they pay $0 out of pocket,” he said.
“This is one of the reasons why the enrollment has increased in the past few years, when the enhanced subsidies have been in place, because they are, quote-unquote ‘free’ to the enrollees, and therefore the enrollees sign up and remain signed up, even if they have other other forms of health coverage.”
When it comes to the firewall separating taxpayer funding from abortion, Jacobs describes the ostensible separation of federal funds as a sham segregation mechanism.
“[T]he problem is, money is fungible. If you are making health insurance. If you are funding the non-abortion portion of health insurance, that, by its very nature, is making the abortion portion of the policy more affordable. So, the pro-life community has consistently, since Obamacare passed in 2010, said that the only real solution is to prohibit federal funding from going to any plans that cover abortion,” Jacobs said.
During the debate over Obamacare back in 2009, a bipartisan legislative proposal, known as the Stupak-Pitts Amendment—named after its sponsors, then-Reps. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Joseph Pitts, R-Pa.—would have explicitly prohibited federal funds from going to pay for any part of a health plan that includes coverage of an abortion. The measure was initially adopted by the House of Representatives, receiving votes by dozens of Democrat members. But it was left out of the final version of the legislation that was signed into law by President Barack Obama after he agreed to sign an executive order ostensibly limiting abortion.
According to Jacobs, the federal dollars are also going to support transgender procedures in some states.
“There are 24 states that require they have quote-unquote, ‘nondiscrimination provisions’ in their law. And in most states, the insurance commissioners just impose these requirements on carriers, such that, for instance, if they cover a mastectomy as treatment for breast cancer, then they also need to cover a mastectomy as, quote, ‘gender-affirmative care,’ and because otherwise they would be discriminating based on gender identity,” he explained.
“So, 24 states have that. And then of those 24, five have them, have the benefits, have transgender procedures included in their essential health benefits, which is the benchmark for determining coverage that all the states have as part of determining, you know, kind of the standard quote-unquote ‘benchmark’ coverage in that particular state, and five states have those included, such that they’re required in all plans,” Jacobs told The Daily Signal.
The policy expert explained how the state of Colorado’s Division of Insurance webpage lists transgender surgeries that are covered by insurance plans in the state, including such procedures as genital surgeries and facial feminization interventions. Jacobs noted that the Trump administration has issued a final rule in June that would attempt to prevent taxpayer dollars going to cover transgender procedures. That rule would be subject to both legal challenges and a future presidential administration repealing it.
Jacobs contended that what was needed to address those issues was a legislative fix. “[T]he Trump administration is trying to take executive action, and they’re doing what they can within the bounds of the law. But ultimately, a legislative fix is really what you need here, because any administrative fix will, by definition, be incomplete,” he said.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
As stated, Obamacare is a total waste of taxpayer money and needs to be TERMINATED as soon as possible (ASAP). Obamacare is nothing more than a socialist plan to control the populace.
Pregnancy is not a disease, if it is it’s quite avoidable. It is a private business, private decision, taxpayer has no business in it. Obamacare is the biggest waste and abuse of public funds, bureaucratic nightmare. It’s result of the genius brain. Transgender surgery is a Mengele dream come true, monstrous experiment, crime against humanity.
Obamacare was never affordable by the masses. Then they attached a penalty if you didn’t sign up for Obamacare. That was still not enough because by forcing people to sign up they couldn’t afford to premiums. They voted to subsidize the high premium costs. Trump says no way. The dems created this boondoggle we need to overhaul Obamacare. Most of all what this article is talking about. First abortion and gender mutilating surgery should not be included. A mastectomy for a breast cancer patient is on a higher plain than gender affirming mastectomy. There is no scientific reason for it. That money could be better spend on mental health counseling. Of course the progressives will be screaming unfair. Like Sanders and AOC are screaming today. Your premiums will double and people will die. You proposed Obamacare and pushed for passage knowing full well nobody could afford the premiums. It was the beginning of destroying America. They shut down the country over it. Trump is trying to make America prosperous for all. The progressives are for breaking the the country by enriching themselves.
I can only hope and pray that President Trump and the Republicans don’t cave to the Damnocraps. EVERYTHING put in place by SOBama should be eliminated! PERMANENTLY!
Transgender surgery is unnecessary plastic surgery and should never be covered by insurance of any kind.
Republicans better not cave in and give the money to Dems. There is no compromise with Dems. Republicans hold your ground. For once.
Any Republican who does not choose this issue as one of the
“Hills to die on” needs to be primaried. The taxpayer funding of abortions and mutilation surgeries must be stopped.
I think People across the entire world are sick of the progressive, unmoral, lack of integrity, we find on the left. They are looking for something to believe in, something wholesome. Not whacked out AOC politics. She is nuts. Hope she does run in 2028 because she will do much worse than Harris.
Once again, the radical liberals want to continue practices that are against the very heart of our Constitutional Democracy. Healthcare was never meant to cover non-citizens especially the millions that Biden’s cabal urged to come to this country and offered up free everything!! Taxpayers are angry about this and why shouldn’t they be?? Illegals should get nothing for free. I am sick of hearing about abortion. Birth control is available FREE to anyone and the kinds of these medications come in many forms. There is NO excuse to get pregnant and expect tax payers to pay for it. Transgenders should NOT expect others to pay for their whims. If they want to change to another sex, they should do it on THEIR dime. This is NOT healthcare. These radical liberals are so sick with TDS they no longer have real brains.
Obamacare itself is a failure. The “subsidies” during COVID were supposed to be temporary. NO COVID spread in over 3 years! DIMMS lying about health care for illegals; it’s in PRINT in their proposed bill! If Schumer were a MAN, he’d do the right thing and worry about Sandy Cortez later!
I have found myself reminding my Democrat friends, (I have a few left), that their complaints about the health care system ring quite hollow. Typical of progressive legislation the ACA (Affordable Care Act) does exactly the opposite of its title. I also remind them that the legislation is more commonly called OBAMACARE and was passed on a 100% partisan vote. The Democrats completely broke an already poorly run system.
Socialism care, Obama promised
It is way past time for the United States government to recognize and codify that transgender does not exist. Taxpayers and insurance companies must never again be forced to pay for the fantasies of the mentally ill. Biological boys and men must be forbidden to compete in girls or women’s sports. Enough!
Obamacare or the Unaffordable Lack of Care Act (UALCA) was never actually a legitimate act of Congress. Persons of my acquaintance (and including acquaintances of acquaintances) were unable to register for UALCA without paying 75-250% MORE than the health plan which had already been in existence.
UALCA should be included among the actions of the United States government which have been Most Harmful to Citizens.
I agree a legislative fix is needed but do we have enough right thinking moral people in Congress to pass that kind of legislation? I doubt it.
Are they so ignorant they do not know men can get breast cancer? How is covering breast cancer even compared with transgender issues?? I hope and pray the real America lovers and people with common sense make a huge showing in the mid terms.
as the daughter of a MAN who had BREAST CANCER -TWICE- it is NOT gender discrimination to refuse mastectomy for a made-up diagnosis of “gender affirming care”. His first mastectomy was 1979, it was covered by insurance, and it saved his life. BE AWARE! BIOLOGICAL MEN CAN GET BREAST CANCER, but only about 20 % of all breast cancer is male so all the attention & PR goes to women and a “woman’s disease”.
Ammo to defund Fed HC grants for TG surgery
Why are we being forced to pay for elective care such as transgender surgeries? This is ideology in action rather than medical necessity. Unless you have independent wealth to cover all medical you need insurance to spread the risk. Yet politicians tinker with the risk by mandating non-necessity care. Time for a clean-up on healthcare.
We should have a tax policy that supports planned pregnancies and healthy families—even coverage for marital therapy to help couples stay together! That assures a healthy future. To support abortion and transgender surgeries is to subsidize societal suicide.
America is well beyond fed up with the subject of abortion. Except in the legitimate but rare cases where the mother is in danger of losing her life, or in the cases of incest or rape (ALL of which should be left up to the parents, the doctor and the Lord), the LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY of BOTH the woman and the man is PURE SELFISH STUPIDITY.
Getting pregnant ISN’T ROCKET SCIENCE. BOTH involved in the act know HOW a pregnancy begins. If they don’t want a baby, THEN SHOW SOME DAMN PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND BOTH USE BIRTH CONTROL
But if you’re too wrapped up in yourselves and SELFISH to do that, then CARRY the BABY to term, delivery the baby, and then give it up for adoption. But STOP the murder.
Our congress had Obama Care where it should be, except for the “rebel” senator McCain. I will never forget this senator’s vengeful vote, because he hated President Trump. Lets not forget our law makers know the inside of all laws. They will proclaim,their pro life stance in public, and when they plea for support for their campaigns, but once elected, they vote with the bunch.
I agree this form of surgery should be OUTLAWED except in one situation. That unfortunate thing is when a baby is born with grossly malformed genitalia. The medical term is “ambiguous”. The first test on a baby was a chromosome test and if XY and the deformities were so abnormal for the plastic surgeons/urologists to restore to a functional male, it would be elected to reassign the gender to female of course with the parent’s consent.
The testicles were 100% of the time were atrophic and undescended and the urologists would have to hunt for them in the abdomen to remove them and the plastic surgeons would try to make the external genitalia resemble a female as best they could. If left in place, would turn into a virulent cancer that would kill. Creating a “real” vagina would take a vast amount of surgery that they let the patient decide on when they became an adult. It would be better to do that then as it was major surgery. Some, decided it to be fine being “asexual” and didn’t elect for vaginal formation.
Oh man as an aside, sharp docs G.P.’s, Pediatricians or Gynecologists picked up on undescended testicles on either one side or both in XY boy babies and referred to urologists who were skilled at “hunting” for them!!
It was a time I saw some fantastic surgery going on a “testicle hunt” in a little baby boy. The docs would always find them, sometimes in the abdomen and pull them down to where they belonged. They had to stage the replacement sometimes to two operations but they did it so the kid wouldn’t have any memory of it as they performed the surgeries while they were still a baby and likely wouldn’t remember.
If they stayed in the “high heat” abdomen they would turn into a bad cancerous situation. Once in the right place, they’d turn into a normal adult male! Those were fun operations to help a boy to grow up normally and they likely wouldn’t know unless their parents told them about it later in life. Made me feel good after I helped with the procedures when I was in training.
I will support what the all knowing creator of the universe has to say about murder over what a “reasonable” person like you has to say on the matter. You are a Pathetic Troll!
Comming from someone who worked for Medicare 16 yrs during the implementation of Obamacare..it was never meant to help anyone but insurance companies..the only reason these insurance companies even participated was because the federal government paid them to participate..that and it was as well designed to do away with all the family owned insurance companies and mom and pop pharmacies..look around they are all gone replaced by walgreens..walmart..the humans and unitedhealthcares yup it was a plan folks just like all the big unions selling off retirees retirements they paid into their whole careers like the railroad..the big 3 car companies..the USPS .yes it was a plan
So transgenderism is a form of cancer? Insurance pays for transgenerism plastic surgery? I would have issues repaired but I was told by insurance it wouldn’t cover it–called it cosmetic surgery. So I live with my skin tags near my eyes and scars that are visible.
“Stand firm or you stand for nothing…..fight the good fight with all your might…”
And the dems are only happy when they can kill all the babies in the womb. And bankrupt America by giving free healthcare to illegals.
A developing human being killed in the womb is still the victim of murder just as it would be if they killed a 6 year old developing human being. Abortion ends a life pure and simple…..it is not OK.
So anyone who can generate that kind of money and all the jobs it would create should end up going to the Poor House? max u need to be put in the Nut House!