House Republicans want to ensure that Obamacare stabilization rules include protections to prevent the money from funding abortions.
Supporters of two Obamacare stabilization bills are looking into adding them to a must-pass, two-year spending bill Congress is expected to take up this month. House Republicans have called for the bills to include protections to ensure federal dollars don’t go toward abortions, and the White House is seeking to make the bills more conservative.
“Hyde language needs to be in whatever we do,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., referring to the Hyde Amendment, a spending rider that prevents federal dollars from being used for abortions.
House Speaker Paul Ryan wants any bills intended to stabilize the Obamacare marketplace to be compliant with the Hyde Amendment, spokeswoman AshLee Strong told the Washington Examiner.
Obamacare’s tax credits, which help customers pay for the cost of health insurance, already must comply with the Hyde Amendment. Republicans have previously questioned whether more protections are needed and if the amendment’s protections are being enforced.
But the Hyde Amendment isn’t the only measure that Republicans want. The White House released a memo seeking changes that include boosting health savings accounts as well as the Hyde protections.
Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., sponsor one of the bills being considered for the spending legislation. It would fund insurer subsidies for two years in exchange for giving states more flexibility to waive Obamacare insurer regulations.
Another bill by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., would give states $10 billion over two years to set up reinsurance programs. Reinsurance covers the sickest claims from an Obamacare insurer, which in turn would lower premiums overall.
Both bills have enough support to pass the Senate, but House Republicans have resisted them because they call them “bailouts” of a law they despise.
President Trump agreed to support the bills to help ensure the vote of centrist Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, for Republicans’ tax overhaul legislation.
House conservatives are not pleased at moves to add the bills to the omnibus spending bill, which will appropriate money agreed to under a budget deal last month.
“There are all kinds of things that might possibly go into the [omnibus],” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a founder of the House Freedom Caucus. “We are obviously not for that.”
Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said the bills likely would be included in the omnibus.
“There are issues from a conservative standpoint as most conservatives don’t support that,” he told reporters Wednesday.
Even though conservatives do not like the bills, Meadows hinted that there is a likelihood they would not derail the $1.2 trillion spending bill.
“I think there is not going to be another shutdown and that is part of why we are seeing a cool, calm collected approach,” he said. “The other part is that you can’t object to something that you don’t know the full parameters of.”
Congressional negotiators are hammering out the specific proposals that will be included in the spending package.
The current short-term spending bill funding the government expires at midnight March 23, so the goal would be to vote on the omnibus by that date or vote on another short-term bill to have more time to finish negotiations.
Walden said the omnibus may be the best chance to get the bills through Congress and to Trump. Walden pointed out that insurers will be putting together their rates for the 2019 plan year as soon as this spring.
“We have a very narrow window here that is closing if we are going to do something in this space,” he said. “The insurers are gonna need to know what the framework looks like to rate their plans going forward.”
