Health carriers nationwide have allowed women to use federal subsidies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to pay for abortions despite a provision forbidding it, a new investigation has found.
The Government Accountability Office said late Monday that PPACA rules have been violated, reporting that out of 18 carriers, 15 of them are selling PPACA plans that don't segregate funds to cover abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or the mother's life, from their Obamacare subsidies.
That's in violation of the law's provision that requires carriers to collect separate payments from customers for abortion coverage so taxpayer money, in the form of subsidies, don't cover abortions. The provision was added to appease anti-abortion Democrats.
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The GAO report didn't state how many plans have paid for abortions so far.
The report found that in Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont, all insurance plans offered on the exchanges cover abortions in all cases.
Nationally, 1,062 plans in 27 states, plus Washington, D.C., only cover abortion in the cases of rape, incest or to preserve the mother's life, and 1,036 plans cover abortion services in a wider variety of circumstances, the GAO said.
The report prompted a quick line of attack from Republicans.
"Today's GAO report confirms that under the president's health care law, abortions are being paid for with taxpayer funds by more than 1,000 exchange plans across the country," Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "This information has been hidden from the American public for years by the Obama Administration, which repeatedly denied congressional requests for its public release."
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services responded to the findings, saying they would issue additional clarifying language to carriers.
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