Abortion – Page 3 – The Health Care Blog

Voters Want Abortion-Neutral Health Care Reform

Dec 26, 2009• 9

By MARK MELLMAN

Mark-Mellman-resized A few months ago, I warned that some folks were attempting to misuse healthcare reform to restrict access to abortion. They have come a long way since then, endangering the vital struggle for healthcare — indeed, torpedoing reform is a key goal for many involved in this effort.

Americans oppose using abortion as a means of derailing health care reform and oppose using health care reform as a means of restricting abortion. The more voters find out about what is happening on Capitol Hill with respect to this issue, the angrier they are getting, because language inserted in the House bill will take away coverage for abortion that tens of millions of women already have.

Taking away existing coverage not only violates the public will, but also does fundamental violence to Democrats’ explicit promise that if you like what you have, you will be able to keep it.

Abortion Should Not Imperil Health Care Reform

Dec 8, 2009• 9

The House vote to establish near-universal health-care coverage came at a steep cost to women. That cost, issued as an amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), eliminates abortion coverage by private insurance companies even when women are paying for all or most of the premium.

Stupak’s amendment is a cynical attempt to push an anti-choice agenda that imperils badly needed reform. His amendment restricts women’s access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market as well as in a “public option,” undermining the ability of women to purchase private health plans that cover abortion. It reaches much further than the Hyde Amendment, which has prohibited public funding of abortion in most instances since 1977.Continue reading…

Abortion Coverage Is About Math As Well As Politics

Nov 12, 2009• 16

By Al LEWIS

Let us start by acknowledging that those who think abortion is a sin must be respected, and not forced into a risk pool that covers abortion. Let us also acknowledge that those who are pro-choice need to acknowledge that abortion (except in the case of rape or incest or potential significant harm to the mother) is a personal choice (albeit usually as a result of an accident) rather than a health issue in the narrow sense of the word.

Therefore, leaving all the politics aside and just focusing on the question of what should be covered in a basic benefit, it is not unreasonable to require an actuarially appropriate rider to cover abortion.

What would that “actuarially appropriate rider” be? Probably only a dollar or two a month to begin with. Figure that there are 800,000 abortions per year. They cost maybe $1000 apiece. That’s $800,000,000. Divided by the 21-65 year-old health-insurance-buying population, we are talking about roughly $4/year. Next, figure some self-selection into the rider, so that people with the rider might, on average, think they have (for instance) three times the probability of an unwanted pregnancy than people without the rider, which is why they get the rider. Therefore their likelihood of abortion is three times higher than the average on which the above calculation was based. So that $4 becomes $12/year or $1/month, to begin with.

Modest step in the reform journey shows the idiocy of our political system

Nov 8, 2009• 14

By Matthew Holt

It does seem to take a health care bill to remind us all how incredibly screwed up the political process is in these here United States. The Medicare Modernization Act was railroaded through by Tom Delay and friends using all their charm and finesse. And last night the House passed its version of the health reform bill. It includes employer mandates, exchanges, subsidies, public option and taxes on those earning more than $500,000 to close the cost gap. And CBO in its wisdom says that it doesn’t increase the deficit.But it didn’t pass by much. 40 Democrats opposed it. These were the Blue Doggers who needed some political cover to be able to say in 2010 that they were against the bill before they were for it. Their expected course of action is that a less liberal bill comes back from final conference with the Senate which they can support. Apparently out there in purple state land uninsurance and egregious health plan behavior are not a problem—at least not compared to the desire of the people to protect the incomes of those earning over $500,000 a year.

But in order to stop even more Democrats opposing it at the last moment Pelosi had to let some previously unheard of Congressman called Stupak become the mouthpiece of the Catholic Bishops who decided that they needed to impose their views about reproductive medical care into the debate. Cynics like me may wonder about the validity of views on that issue from a bunch of old men who’ve allegedly never been married or had sex with a woman, and whose main contribution to child welfare over the past few decades has been to ignore and assist in flagrant abuses of it by their colleagues. But no matter, over recent days they started putting pressure on various Democrats to tighten restriction on Federal funding of abortion.Continue reading…