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A bipartisan cohort of senators is nearing a final plan to tackle rising healthcare costs, but the issue of more-stringent restrictions preventing taxpayer-funded abortions remains a major hurdle in the way to sealing the deal.
The working group, led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has held several meetings since dueling, partisan proposals to either extend or replace expired enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies failed late last year.
Now, they’re on the verge of unveiling their plan and have started sharing what exactly the rough framework would look like. But while selling the bones of the latest idea to tackle healthcare will be one thing, overcoming the issue of taxpayer-funded abortions will be another.
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Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, laid out a long-simmering framework for a bipartisan plan to tackle healthcare, but the issue of taxpayer-funded abortions still threatens to derail the deal. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
The Hyde Amendment, which dictates that taxpayer dollars can’t fund abortions, has proven a sticking point on both sides of the aisle. Senate Republicans argue that Obamacare doesn’t completely follow the law, while Senate Democrats contend that no modifications need to be made to the longstanding statute.
“There’s no disagreement that there should not be federal funding for abortion,” Moreno said. “Nobody on either side is wanting to relitigate that question. So we’re past that mountain. The next mountain is a dispute as to whether that is actually happening today through [Obamacare].”
“A group of people, very good people, say that it is happening, and there’s a group of other people who have good people, too, that say it’s not happening,” he continued. “So we have to resolve that.”
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President Donald Trump…
