|
Senator McCaskill is sadly wrong on what the Stupak-Pitts amendment prohibits. Even if she were right, it would still be a wound to the rights of women in this country. Even if the original Stupak amendment passed which only included the public option, not the entire exchanges, that would still have been the biggest blow for women since the original Hyde amendment. Which has always been a vindictive piece of legislation aimed at the most vulnerable among us.
The Hyde amendment is now a festering sore that has suppurated which will deprive American women of all kinds from the poor to middle and even upper class womwn, access to an essential reproductive rights.
But the Senator's understanding is a misunderstanding of great proportions. She is wrong. The prohibition is not on individuals in the exchanges who buy plans but on the plans which GET subsidies.
Senator McCaskill said via the Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
"But we are talking about whether or not people that get public money can buy an insurance policy that has a coverage for abortion. And that is not the majority of America. The majority of America is not going to be getting subsidies from the government...."
The majority of America now gets coverage from their employers who will be allowed to purchase on the exchanges.
But she is very, very wrong on the mechanism for prohibiting abortion coverage.. She has it backwards. Her misunderstanding is convenient perhaps because it allows her to proceed under the assumption that few people will be affected. Maybe that makes it better in her mind.
She is wrong. Millions of women --now without insurance and even those now with it in the private market will be affected. In a few years all women will be affected as employers are allowed to enter the exchanges. No abortion coverage for anyone at all.
See David Dayen at Firedoglake
http://news.firedoglake.com/20...
The federal subsidies affect the plan, not just the individuals in the plan. It is not just the individual who has subsides that can't get abortion coverage. It is that any subsidy from anyone taints the entire plan. So any plan that gets subsidies from anyone at all can not offer abortion coverage.
|
