McConnell calls for ObamaCare money to be used for Zika

by Peter Sullivan - 08/19/16 4:37 PM ET

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to use its funds to fight the Zika virus instead of paying for ObamaCare outreach.

{mosads}“As the program continues to falter, now we see reports that the administration is working on yet another Obamacare advertising campaign, despite warnings that it will do little to change the fundamental weaknesses in the market place,” McConnell wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell. “I am particularly concerned that taxpayer resources could be used for these campaigns at a time when there are higher priority public health needs.”

HHS has said that it plans to increase its outreach efforts for the fall sign-up period, including through advertising and targeted emails to young people and people who paid the penalty for not having insurance.

Experts say the coming sign-up period is an important test of whether more people, particularly the young and healthy, can be brought into ObamaCare to help improve the sustainability of the law’s marketplaces for skittish insurers that warn they are losing money.

The White House has been pressuring McConnell and other congressional Republicans for months to provide $1.9 billion to fight Zika, but Republicans have refused.

“The last person who should criticize HHS for not being focused on Zika is the Senate Republican leader who has refused to compromise in order to get a clean, bipartisan funding bill to the President’s desk,” said HHS spokesman Kevin Griffis.

HHS also said that it is not even possible for ObamaCare outreach funds to be shifted to Zika because those funds are part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services budget and Zika efforts are funded by other agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Zika has begun spreading in the U.S. recently, with more than 2,200 confirmed cases on the mainland. The virus, which is passed on by mosquitoes and sexual contact, has been shown to cause severe birth defects.

HHS announced earlier this month that the lack of congressional action was forcing it to shift money from other areas in the department to prevent a delay in work on a vaccine.

Republicans counter that they have put forward their own $1.1 billion Zika bill but that Senate Democrats have blocked it over provisions related to Planned Parenthood and cuts to ObamaCare and anti-Ebola programs.

In the letter, McConnell asks a series of questions about where the administration is getting the funds for its ObamaCare advertising campaign and whether it is requesting additional funds from Congress.

“In earlier years, the Administration spent millions of dollars in taxpayer funds though exchanges on ads of questionable value,” he writes. “Yet those advertising campaigns failed to attract enough young and healthy enrollees to create a sustainable marketplace. Do you expect this campaign to yield a different result?”

Tags Mitch McConnell