Health Care Reform Update: Success in the House!

Posted on November 10, 2009 by altapricehome

Health Care Reform Update: Success in the House!

By Alta Price, M.D.

Saturday the House of Representatives passed an excellent health care reform bill. There are so many good things about this bill, I couldn’t begin to cover them all. I would refer you to the Kaiser Family Foundation website, where you can find an overview of the House Leadership Bill. Many provisions will begin immediately, so Americans will start benefiting in 2010. This is good policy and good politics.

Of course, our pro-life Democratic Representatives have thrown a monkey-wrench into the bill with the anti-abortion Stupak amendment. I haven’t had enough time to study this carefully, but it seems that the result would be a ban on abortion coverage in private and public plans in the National Insurance Exchange. This is an unprecedented reduction in reproductive health services, since most private insurance plans currently provide abortion coverage. (Why do you suppose that is? Let’s see…oh yes! It is cheaper to pay for an abortion than for pregnancy and delivery, isn’t it? Tell your pro-life friends with private insurance that their premium dollars are paying for abortions, so they should drop their coverage.) It seems like President Obama, a reliable ally on reproductive rights, is weighing in on this issue already. Between President Obama and the pro-choice Democratic caucus, this may not make it into the final bill. But again, it is early and we will have to see how this shakes out.

Well, at this point I’d say we are about one-third of the way to a national health care reform bill. Ignore those who say health care reform won’t pass in the Senate. Previously, we had to divide our efforts between the House and the Senate. Now we can all go after those few Democratic Senators who would dare support a Republican filibuster of the health care reform bill. Democracy for America continues to lead in this battle. Right now they are targeting Senator Mary Landrieu  – I suggest you support their efforts!

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