U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has joined with Republican colleagues to introduce a bill that they say aims to stabilize health insurance premiums in the individual market.
Some elements of the legislation have the backing of national insurance, physician and hospital groups. But one major sticking point is a provision that critics say would effectively eliminate abortion coverage, even in private plans.
The major components of the bill include some that may sound familiar, such as funding for cost-sharing reduction subsidies. Those are payments insurance companies get to lower co-pays and deductibles for lower-income individuals. President Donald Trump ended those payments last year — Collins’ bill would reinstate funding for three years.
Her bill would also provide $30 billion in funding over three years so states can establish high-risk pools, which help cover high medical costs for some patients.
Those provisions have the backing of the Maine Medical Association, says spokesman Gordon Smith.
“This is very important in Maine to stabilize the insurance marketplace, and it’s a shame that it’s being held hostage to other issues,” he says.
The “other” issues Smith is talking about are restrictions to abortion coverage. A federal law called the Hyde amendment prohibits the use of federal funds to cover abortions. Language in Collins’ bill, Smith says, goes a step further by barring the use of cost-sharing reductions and reinsurance payments for plans that simply offer abortion coverage.
“That really does expand the Hyde amendment, it seems to me, into the commercial area where it has not been previously,” he says.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America issued a statement condemning the bill, and warning that blocking those payments to insurance companies that offer abortion coverage will force insurers to drop that coverage altogether.
Collins spokeswoman Annie Clark says the legislation merely follows federal law. In a written statement, Clark says Collins’ bill retains the exact same protections that block federal funding from being used for abortions that have been in place for more than 30 years.
“We’d just like to see them pass something and get things done,” says Jeff Austin of the Maine Hospital Association.
Austin says the organization doesn’t have a position on the abortion language in the bill. But he says it’s critical to stabilize the insurance market.
If Collins’ bill were enacted, the health consulting firm Oliver Wyman projects that it would lower premiums by 40 percent and increase the number of people with insurance by about 3 million over the next few years. A Congressional Budget Office analysis projected a smaller premium reduction of 20 percent.
Whether the bill can garner enough support from both Republicans and Democrats is uncertain. On Wednesday morning, Collins and other Republicans will hold a press conference to push for the stabilization proposal to be included in the omnibus spending bill that Congress will take up this week.
