U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said Democrats have shuttered the federal government over hyper-partisan issues: abortion and immigration.
“Democrats are shutting down the government and harming American families because they want to waste another trillion of your dollars on liberal priorities like health care for illegal aliens and funding for free abortions,” Scott posted Oct. 2 on X. He reshared a post by anti-abortion nonprofit group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Democrats aren’t seeking to fund health care for immigrants in the U.S. illegally. We previously rated that False. Immigrants in the country illegally are largely ineligible for federally funded health care.
Scott’s other point, about federal funding for free abortions, is also wrong. Federal law prohibits federal funds for abortions, and Democrats’ Sept. 17 proposal to temporarily extend government funding wouldn’t change this. The discussion is centered around a fight over a longstanding process in some Affordable Care Act plans that separates federal funds from money paid by patients for abortion care coverage.
The Democratic proposal to temporarily fund the government calls for extending pandemic-era enhanced ACA subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Without congressional action, researchers estimate insurance premiums will rise by more than 114% on average for enrollees who use subsidies, leading to an estimated 3.8 million more people becoming uninsured over the next 10 years.
Democrats also seek to roll back about $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts in Republicans’ tax and spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law in July. The Democrats’ legislation would restore access to certain health care programs for some legal immigrants who will lose access under the Republican law.
Because some state Affordable Care Act insurance plans cover abortion,anti-abortion advocates say the enhanced federal subsidies Democrats support indirectly fund abortion. But the ACA requires that insurers segregate insurance premiums from enrollees so that money for abortion is separated from federal funds.
“The ACA is very clear in the statute and there is nothing in it that provides ‘free’ abortions using federal dollars,” Alina Salganicoff, a senior vice president and director of the Women’s Health Policy Program at KFF, a health care think tank, told PolitiFact. “Non-federal funds are to be collected by the plans and segregated to be used exclusively to pay for abortions. Federal funds are not used to subsidize tax credits or abortion coverage in any way.”
PolitiFact contacted Scott’s office but did not hear back.
Democrats’ proposal doesn’t include funding for free abortions
Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has barred using federal funds for abortions — except in cases or rape, incest or to save the life of the pregnant woman —including via Medicaid, Medicare and other federal insurance providers. Congress enacts the amendment annually and it’s attached as a rider to annual appropriations bills to ensure government money doesn’t go toward abortions. The restrictions apply to the subsidies that Democrats seek to extend.
Anti-abortion groups and some Republican lawmakers have pushed to prohibit subsidies’ use in insurance plans that include abortion coverage, and seek to attach the Hyde Amendment to any ACA subsidy extension. Democrats cite the ACA process to separate taxpayer funds and accuse Republicans of using the debate to expand nationwide restrictions on abortion coverage.
Section 1303 of the health law stipulates that insurers must deposit insurance premiums for abortion services into a separate account and charge each enrollee $1 per month to pay for covered abortion services.
Anti-abortion advocates say the money is fungible, meaning that once insurance providers have collected it, they can spend it on anything, including abortion.
Health policy experts say this argument is flawed. The ACA had the same process in place since its 2010 enactment. Then-President Barack Obama issued an executive order that year affirming that the funding restrictions spelled out in the Hyde Amendment apply to Section 1303.
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In 2014, the first year of the federal health care marketplace, a Government Accountability Office report found mixed compliance for the process to separate the funding, and Health and Human Services issued additional guidance instructing insurers how to comply. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion access, HHS reiterated that ACA coverage of abortion services is subject to state law.
“This is not something new that Democrats are proposing,” said Katie Keith, a Georgetown University health policy researcher and Affordable Care Act expert. “This framework has been in place since the ACA was enacted, and for more than a decade since the marketplace opened.”
The 2010 law allows states to bar health care plans from covering abortions, which 25 states have done. Twelve states have laws that require marketplace plans to include abortion coverage, while the remainder neither require nor prohibit abortion coverage in ACA plans.
Research has also found that the ACA’s required monthly minimum of $1 per member for abortion services “exceeds the cost of abortions that plans are paying for with those funds,” KFF wrote in September. For example, one report found that Maryland ACA plans had $25 million in unspent funds from policyholder payments for abortion coverage.
“Democrats are not touching abortion coverage at all right now,” Keith said. “They are talking about extending the status quo and preventing a premium spike for millions of Americans. When COVID-era ACA extensions were put in place it had nothing to do with abortion then — and it still has nothing to do with abortion now.”
Our ruling
Scott said Democrats shut down the government because they are seeking to use taxpayer money on “health care for illegal aliens and funding for free abortions.”
This distorts the Democratic shutdown proposal on two fronts.
Immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally are largely ineligible for federally funded health care; the Democrats’ proposal would restore access to certain health care programs for some legal immigrants who stand to lose access.
Democrats also are not seeking funding for free abortions. Federal law prohibits federal funds to be used for abortions except in cases or rape, incest or to save the life of the pregnant woman. The ACA requires non-federal funds to be collected by insurance plans and segregated into separate accounts to be used exclusively for abortion services.
We rate Scott’s statement False.
PolitiFact staff writer Maria Ramirez Uribe contributed to this report.
RELATED: Republicans falsely tie shutdown to Democrats wanting health care for immigrants illegally in the US
