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The GOP health care overhaul barreling toward a possible Senate vote this month would restrict abortion coverage for some people as early as next year.

Most of the major changes included in the package, from Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, wouldn’t take effect until 2020. That’s when the legislation would end the subsidies currently available to consumers who don’t get their health insurance through their job or a government program. It’s also when the legislation would overhaul — and cut — government contributions to state Medicaid programs.  

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But beginning in 2018, the Graham-Cassidy legislation would make it illegal for insurers to offer plans that cover abortions on the Obamacare exchanges. More than 9 million people who rely on the Obamacare exchanges would be explicitly denied the coverage, as would any new customers who try to sign up during this year’s open enrollment period, which begins in November.

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