Obamacare legislation that once was hailed for its bipartisan support is at death’s door because of partisan sniping.
Republican lawmakers said Wednesday that Democrats do not want to support legislation to try to stabilize Obamacare because they care more about politics, while Democrats levy a similar charge against the GOP.
The once-bipartisan legislation cratered to partisan infighting as Republican lawmakers sought to include the package in the must-pass spending bill. Democrats counter that Republicans have no intention of stabilizing Obamacare’s markets after trying to repeal the law last year and are inserting poison pills in the legislation.
“You’re going to blame us in October for premium increases, is your goal,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said of Democratic objections to language called the Hyde Amendment that prohibits federal money from covering abortions. “You have a chance now to work with us to lower premiums by up to 40 percent.”
Graham added that Democrats “are not worthy of governing this place. I have never been more disappointed in my Democratic colleagues of sitting on the sidelines and watching hardworking Americans pay a price in premiums because they are trying to win a political argument that I think is disingenuous and phony.”
He said Democrats have voted for appropriations bills that include Hyde language since 1976.
“You’re going to have to say that every federal dollar running through the federal system for healthcare is protected by Hyde, but you want these federal dollars not protected by Hyde,” Graham said.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also delivered harsh words to Democrats. She has brokered bipartisan talks with Democrats on a host of issues.
“The message that it sends to me and the American people is there is very little interest in actually solving problems,” she said. “Instead the focus is on scoring partisan, political points that can be used in the fall elections. I think that is disgraceful.”
But Democrats charge that Republicans are not willing to work with them and are inserting poison pills into the legislation. Republicans want to apply stricter anti-abortion language to the new funding than what was inserted in Obamacare.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told the Washington Examiner Tuesday that she sent Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., acceptable abortion language last week. Murray and Alexander have been working on the legislation since the summer.
Murray said she was blindsided by the release of legislation Monday that did not include the language she offered.
She said Wednesday that GOP leadership has torpedoed bipartisan talks to pursue a “politically driven show votes over getting a result for families.”
A Senate aide said Republicans do not want to pass a bill to stabilize Obamacare, a law they tried multiple times to repeal. So instead they inserted objectionable measures to repel Democrats and kill the effort.
The Obamacare legislation funds insurer payments called cost-sharing reduction payments for three years. It also gives states $30 billion over three years to create reinsurance programs that would cover the sickest claims from Obamacare insurers, giving them an incentive to lower premiums overall.
Obamacare initially included an amendment named after former Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. The amendment banned federal subsidies for Obamacare plans that covered abortion, but it allowed customers to buy a rider with non-federal money to cover abortions.
However, that language was softened in the Senate. States could opt out of allowing plans to cover abortion on the exchanges, according to a 2009 report in the Washington Post.
But under the new legislation, a state would have to opt in to get an exception to allow Obamacare insurers to cover abortions on the exchanges.
The Hyde Amendment language affects only the new funding in the bill. However, Democrats and advocates are worried that it could lead to states not wanting to cover abortion at all to get the reinsurance funding.
Alexander said Wednesday that states or private entities or insurers can use their own funds to provide coverage for abortion.
So far, 26 states restrict abortion coverage for plans sold on the exchanges, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group. Another 11 states have laws that restrict insurance coverage of all abortion in all private insurance plans written in the state, including those covered on the exchanges.
Eight states permit additional abortion coverage by purchase of a rider or an additional premium.
