The new reconciliation bill that Senate Democrats just passed — under the almost unbelievable title of the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” — will have plenty of ill effects, including that it will extend Obamacare’s premium tax credits for health-care plans that cover elective abortion.
The bill extends the credits through 2025 at a cost of an estimated $64 billion, unless they’re made permanent in the future — a further extension of what was done under the American Rescue Plan. In short, the bill will continue subsidies for health-insurance plans on the Obamacare exchanges that fund abortion on demand, in violation of the Hyde amendment.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services has under the Biden administration proposed a rule change that would allow for the conflation of payment and accounting requirements related to abortion, rather than requiring premium payments for abortion and actual health care to remain separate, as Obamacare itself requires. Late last month, a group of Republican senators wrote to HHS secretary Xavier Becerra in opposition to this proposed rule change.