Tags
The Stupak-Pitts amendment in the House bans abortion coverage from the health care bill. The only way a woman’s policy would cover abortion would be if her premiums were paid for exclusively with private money. Note that only one Missouri Democrat, Ike Skelton, voted for it. Lacy Clay, who is Roman Catholic and who opposes abortion, has nevertheless been consistently cautious about voting to prevent women from choosing for themselves. He’s not on the list of aye votes.
Skelton, who was going to vote against the health care reform bill anyway, got a chance–despite being a turncoat on the most historic piece of Democratic legislation in decades–to get something he wanted, a ban on abortions.
Sure, I know why the Stupak amendment was allowed to come up for a vote. And if it was that or not getting a bill at all, I’d take what I could get. But I’m trying to wrap my mind around a situation where a defector like Ike gets this sweet little reward.
From my perspective this bill has always been a nothing pill wrapped in sugar coating. In the medical world this is referred to as a placebo. Far from covering the 120 million as initially envisioned, this bill will provide for some 6 million enrollees which will likely turn out to be sicker and higher cost participants. The rest will be stuffed into state Medicaid programs with means testing, treatment limitations, and spenddowns. Already they are projecting that the public plan premium will be more expensive than private plan premium which could lead to its early demise.
But the absolute crowning glory of this placebo bill is the Stupak amendment. Not only does it allow backdoor attacks on abortion rights, Sharon Lerner of the Nation breaks it down a little further:
We can’t be sure that the anemic public option will survive the encounter with the yet to be defined Senate bill, but it is highly likely this right wing violence will be permitted to endure. I might question a position of taking what we can get, especially when women (more specifically poor women) are being asked to pick up the tab. Again!
which is reprehensible — but also an excellent measure of just how difficult it has been to do what Nancy Pelosi managed to do in the House. There may be even more serious problems with the final legislation that comes out of the reconciliation process, or, maybe, some of the current problems with the two bills will be fixed; we will have to wait and see (while lobbying as hard as we can for real improvement).
However, I am sure that no matter what comes out of the final process, there will be numerous reforms that will benefit everyone, including women. If each of these reforms had been presented singly rather than as parts of a comprehensive package, we would have been out there cheering them on and urging our representatives to support them.
I am equally sure that there will be serious problems with the final product. This legislation has to be regarded as starting point and it will need to be refined and augmented. If that is to happen we will have to stop worrying about the fact that it isn’t perfect, and figure out how to change the climate that made this rational and beneficial if limited reform so difficult to attain.
If you consider the frenzy and gullibility of the Tea Partiers, the lies of the Republicans, the complicity of the media and the tons of corporate $$$ that have been and will continue to be used to keep things the way they are, you must admit that the way ahead will be just as difficult as the path to the current reform has been — and imperfect as the result has been, the process of getting there has been no walk in the park.
It is bad enough that the House health reform bill will redirect 500 billion dollars from Medicare B, with 50 billion from Home Health alone, to cover the cost of this bill. Most of this money will of course flow directly into the insurance company trust accounts. But to close the door on female reproductive services while leaving prayer treatment as an option seems clearly to be in violation of Separation of Church and State.
National Org of Women came out yesterday w. the following press release:
They are calling on the Senate to pass a bill that will respect the constitutional rights of women to reproductive health and asking President Obama to refuse to sign any bill restricting a woman’s right to affordable, quality reproductive health care.
We cannot afford to wait until something (anything) has been passed and then assume that we will have the luxury to work to change or upgrade the deficiencies. The bill is not scheduled to be implemented until 2013 and for all we know the Republicans may be firmly ensconced in the WH once again.