I called, on Saturday, but what more could I do? Mostly I just tracked the news and crossed my fingers. The fact that this came out of nowhere (at least for me) and was over with in a day feels so utterly unfair.
In case you are not familiar with the Stupak amendment, it is part of the recently passed House version of the health care reform bill. The amendment restricts the ability of public and private insurance plans, offered in government health exchanges, to provide coverage for abortion.
Read that again: AND PRIVATE. This is where I was unclear yesterday, but it is clarified today by this extremely helpful post from legal experts at Planned Parenthood. I'm quoting it extensively because given what I heard on NPR yesterday, I think there is still some confusion out there about the realistic effects of the Stupak amendment on abortion coverage availability in the exchanges:
The Stupak-Pitts amendment prohibits any coverage of abortion in the public option and prohibits anyone receiving a federal subsidy from purchasing a health insurance plan that includes abortion. It also prohibits private health insurance plans from offering through the exchange a plan that includes abortion coverage to both subsidized and unsubsidized individuals.
Thus, if a plan wants to offer coverage in the exchange to both groups of individuals, it would have to offer two different plans: one with abortion coverage for women without subsidies and one without abortion coverage for women with subsidies. These private insurance plans would need to be identified as either providing or not providing coverage for abortion.
Health insurance plans are highly unlikely to operate in this manner, and it is not even clear that this is feasible under the administration of the exchange and affordability credits. As one alternative, the Stupak amendment purports to allow women to purchase a separate, single-service “abortion rider,” but abortion riders don’t exist. In the five states that only allow abortion coverage through a separate rider, there is no evidence that they are available.
Furthermore, women are unlikely to think ahead to choose a plan that includes abortion coverage, since they do not plan for unplanned pregnancy. In addition, it is not clear that health plans would even be allowed to offer two separate plans under other provisions of the act, such as the anti-discrimination and guaranteed-issue provisions. Those elements of the bill, which are very important to consumers, may make it impossible for plans to provide two separate plans, one that includes abortion and another that does not.
Realistically, the actual effect of the Stupak-Pitts amendment is to ban abortion coverage across the entire exchange, for women with both subsidized and unsubsidized coverage.
(emphasis mine)
Why the Stupak amendment? The argument is, as best I can tell, that those people who can't use all their own money to buy health insurance will be eligible for a government subsidy. This will probably be me at some point very soon (like after I graduate from school in May) so let's take me as an example. I could use the subsidy to buy a health insurance plan that covered abortion. Then I could use that money (along with my OWN!) to buy a private plan. Then, if I needed an abortion and that insurance plan covered it, the government would have somehow, indirectly, kinda sorta had a hand in making it possible for me to get a legal medical procedure.
Did I say legal medical procedure? I also meant abortion. They're the same thing, so sometimes I use them interchangeably.
We have had the Hyde amendment in place since 1977, exempting abortion from Medicaid. Poor women, expendable: check. Apparently health care reform is an opportunity to go even farther: to reach into PRIVATE health insurance, paid for with PRIVATE money, and effectively take abortion coverage out of that, too. This applies not just to individuals, but to businesses; companies that buy plans through the exchange? All their employees' families will lose any abortion coverage they had. All women, expendable: check.
The fact that this amendment comes from the party that has been ranting and railing about "government taking over health care" and using scare tactics like death panels and rationing of care...well, I guess irony has been dead to the Republican party for a long, long time, so we shouldn't be too surprised.
Besides women who need abortions, who else will this hurt? How about women who have miscarriages? Is maternity care next? Keep in mind, this comes from the same party that says health insurance shouldn't cover maternity care, because men don't need it.
This just...disgusts me. Last year I went to a talk by Dr. Nick Gorton and blogged about how he predicted this very outcome - that reproductive health care would be one of the issues to suffer when government stepped into health insurance. At the time, I mused about how we could protect abortion and other political hot button issues in health care reform - but reform seemed so theoretical. I guess I haven't been paying enough attention - but that's going to change. I agree, let's not just be satisfied with keeping Stupak out of the final bill - let's go after Hyde.
If you'd like to take further action now, this is a great place to start: While there's a wall of shame for Dems who voted for Stupak and against reform, there are some bright spots. Those are Democrats who voted AGAINST Stupak and FOR health care reform - despite being in highly vulnerable races next year. Click here to donate to those reps, reward their courage, help keep them in Congress, and send a message to the party: Do NOT allow the Stupak amendment into the final bill.
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