Obama Administration Awards Obamacare ‘Navigator’ Grants to Planned Parenthood

The Obama administration has awarded more than $1 million in “navigator”grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates for their efforts to help sign people up for Obamacare during the coming open enrollment period.

While Planned Parenthood is embroiled in scandal over its practices – revealed in investigative videos – of harvesting the body parts of aborted babies for sale on the open market, the Obama administration announced Tuesday it has awarded the nation’s largest provider of abortions with over $1 million in grants to help sign up more consumers for Obamacare come November 1, when the open enrollment period begins.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland in Iowa received a $304,373 navigator grant, while Planned Parenthood of St. Louis received $388,787. In Montana, Intermountain Planned Parenthood, Inc., DBA Planned Parenthood, received $337,555.

In response to the award to affiliates of Planned Parenthood, which is currently in the midst of several congressional investigations for its organ harvesting practices, Rep. Diane Black, author of the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015, said that granting further funds to the abortion business is “unconscionable.”

“A growing body of evidence suggests that Planned Parenthood broke federal law and now the Obama Administration is thumbing its nose at Congress and taxpayers by using this backdoor maneuver to boost funding for the scandal-ridden abortion giant,” Black said in a press statement. “This is all the more reason for the House to immediately pass my legislation, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which would freeze all federal funding to the organization – including navigator grants.”

“As I’ve said in the past, the best time to act on this bill was before the start of the August district work period, but better late than never,” she added. “The American people expect a bold response to the atrocities at Planned Parenthood and it’s time Congress delivered.”

Awards totaling $67 million have been granted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)—part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—to various organizations and groups, reports the agency.

“There are a lot of choices when it comes to signing up for health insurance and we want to help make sure consumers feel confident that they’ve picked the right plan,” said Kevin Counihan, CEO of the Health Insurance Marketplaces. “In person assistance from Navigators and assisters has proven to be an incredibly important avenue for consumers to get the right coverage. I’m pleased that Navigators and assisters will be available in even more geographic areas this year.”

The navigator grants are awarded for a three-year period, and CMS states this year’s grantees “will expand access to local help in many states.”