A reward for being a traitor

sometimes the price is just too high (0.00 / 0)

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:

None of the bills emerging from the House and Senate require insurers to cover all the elements of a standard gynecological "well visit," leaving essential care such as pelvic exams, domestic violence screening, counseling about sexually transmitted diseases, and, perhaps most startlingly, the provision of birth control off the list of basic benefits all insurers must cover. Nor are these services protected from "cost sharing," which means that, depending on what's in the bill that emerges from the Senate, and, later, the contents of a final bill, women could wind up having to pay for some of these services out of their own pockets. So far, mammograms and Pap tests are covered in every version of the legislation.

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!

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by: tonva @ Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 23:06:48 PM UTC

65 Democrats voted for the Stupak amendment ... (0.00 / 0)

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.

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by: WillyK @ Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 01:38:59 AM UTC

I remain unsoothed (0.00 / 0)

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:

NOW Opposes Health Care Bill That Strips Millions of Women of Abortion Access
Says Bill Obliterates Women's Fundamental Right to Choose

Statement of NOW President Terry O'Neill

November 8, 2009

The House of Representatives has dealt the worst blow to women's fundamental right to self-determination in order to buy a few votes for reform of the profit-driven health insurance industry. We must protect the rights we fought for in Roe v. Wade. We cannot and will not support a health care bill that strips millions of women of their existing access to abortion.

Birth control and abortion are integral aspects of women's health care needs. Health care reform should not be a vehicle to obliterate a woman's fundamental right to choose.

The Stupak Amendment goes far beyond the abusive Hyde Amendment, which has denied federal funding of abortion since 1976. The Stupak Amendment, if incorporated into the final version of health insurance reform legislation, will:

   * Prevent women receiving tax subsidies from using their own money to purchase private insurance that covers abortion;
   * Prevent women participating in the public health insurance exchange, administered by private insurance companies, from using 100 percent of their own money to purchase private insurance that covers abortion;
   * Prevent low-income women from accessing abortion entirely, in many cases.

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.

 

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by: tonva @ Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 19:50:36 PM UTC