Senate Republicans’ plan to take away healthcare from millions of Americans would wreak a special kind of havoc on women. In particular, the GOP proposal would limit access to basic reproductive healthcare, including abortion and contraception, as part of a long-term plan to chip away at Americans’ reproductive freedom.
Here’s what you need to know about the GOP plan:
- It significantly reduces abortion coverage in the private market, potentially eliminating it entirely. It institutes financial penalties for purchasing abortion coverage in the private insurance market. This will drive consumers away from these plans and create a strong disincentive for insurers to offer this coverage at all. Specifically, the bill:
- Prohibits individuals who receive tax credits from purchasing plans that include abortion coverage, even if they use their own funds to purchase insurance.
- Prohibits small employers who receive tax credits from purchasing plans that include abortion coverage, even if employers use their own funds to purchase the plan.1
- It bans abortion coverage in all plans offered in state health-insurance exchanges (similar to the failed Stupak amendment offered during debate on the ACA).2
- It devastates our nation’s family-planning network by defunding Planned Parenthood.
- The bill forces countless Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation to close by disqualifying them from participating in federal healthcare programs, leaving patients without care.
- Anti-choice lawmakers have attempted to obscure their intentions by not calling out Planned Parenthood by name in the bill — but don’t be fooled. As confirmed in the CBO report, Planned Parenthood is the singular target of the defunding provision.
- Republicans claim that other healthcare providers can pick up the onslaught of new patients, but this is simply false; the community health centers themselves have said they cannot absorb so many new patients.
- Even HHS Sec. Tom Price was unable to explain how patients will receive timely care in the more than 100 counties where Planned Parenthood is the only publicly funded provider that offers the full range of contraceptive methods. In short, eliminating Planned Parenthood from communities would have a devastating impact on women and families.
NARAL’s more than 1 million members are organizing and mobilizing to raise the alarm about the GOP’s shameful plan to put their extreme ideological agenda before the health of American families.
1 Senate Discussion Draft of H.R.1628, Pg. 9
2 Senate Discussion Draft of H.R.1628, Pg. 8