Get the Facts

Timeline: Voting for Health Care

• February 25, 2010, President Obama will be hosting a bipartisan, televised Health Care summit at the Blair House guest residence where key members of both the Republican and Democrat parties will come together to discuss the pending health care reform legislation with the President moderating discussion.

• Jan. 5, 2010 and Jan. 6, the Senate and the House respectively reconvened. The House/Senate Conference Committee will begin its work to reconcile the bill passed in the Senate (H.R. 3590) with the bill passed by the House (H.R.3962), with abortion coverage and funding becoming one of the bigger challenges. The Senate version of the bill would make enrollees in plans that cover abortion procedures pay with separate checks — one for abortion, one for any other health-care services. While one of the national non-profit plans in the exchange should cover abortion, that choice is not left with women individually, but given to the state.Now is a crucial time for your voice to be heard and step up the pressure until both houses will vote on the final version of the bill, which the President is expected to sign. It’s the best time to write letters, call members, write op-eds, blog posts and letters to the editor and sign petitions. Do not let up now.

• On December 24, 2009, the senate passed the final version of its bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, by 60 to 39 votes.

• On December 19, the Senate passed a Manager’s Amendment to its version of the bill, which included Ben Nelson’s sweeping anti-abortion language that comes very close to the Stupak-Amendment passed in the House.

• On December 8, the Senate voted against the Nelson Amendment, put forward by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb), which was almost identical to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment in the House version of the bill.

• On December 3, the Senate approved an amendment to its health care legislation — put forward by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, (D-MD) — by 61 to 39, with three Republicans (Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins from Maine, and David Vitter of Louisiana), joining 56 Democrats and two independents in favor. The amendment would require insurance companies to offer free mammograms and other preventive services to women.

• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) introduces his amendment to the health care reform bill to the Senate, which includes “Special Rules Relating to Coverage of Abortion Services” (page 116, section 1303). It bars the use of federal funds for abortion services, but does not go as far as the House bill. Read more on the Democrats’ Health Care Reform as it was discussed in the Senate the weekend of December 5th, to cover the more than 51 million Americans without health insurance.

• On November 7, 2009, the House passed its version of the bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, by a vote of 220 to 215. The bill includes the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, introduced by Democrat Bart Stupak that wad adopted by a vote of 240 to 194.

Facts on the Health Care Bill

• Facts on Women’s Health Care, according to Planned Parenthood:
  • Women are more vulnerable to high health care costs because women’s reproductive health requires more regular contact with health care providers, including visits for yearly Pap tests, mammograms and obstetric care.
  • Tough economic times are especially difficult for women struggling to afford basic health care.
  • Women of childbearing age spend 68 percent more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, in part because of reproductive health-related supplies and services.
  • Roughly 16.7 million women are uninsured and thus likely to postpone care and delay, or forgo, important preventive care, such as cancer screenings
  • Six in 10 clients consider family planning centers, like Planned Parenthood health centers, their main source of health care. Often, these centers are their only interaction with the country’s health care system.

• The California chapter of NOW has published a page “Women & Health Care Reform: Myths & Facts” on their website.

• According to Women and Health Care Reform, 22 million women and girls went without health insurance in 2007 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. About 13% of all pregnant women are uninsured. In 2008, more than 20% — 12.4 million of American women of childbearing age — were uninsured. At age 25, women are charged between 6% and 45% more than men for identical coverage. At age 40, women’s monthly premiums are between 4% and 48% higher than men’s.

• The National Organization for Women (NOW) states:
  • “The Nelson-Hatch Amendment would likely prohibit insurance companies from offering abortion coverage in any plan sold through the health insurance exchanges if there are any persons in that plan who receive subsidies from the government to pay for coverage. Because millions of low- and moderate-income persons previously uninsured or underinsured would be seeking insurance through these exchanges and likely receiving the government affordability credits, the abortion coverage ban could be extended to millions of women. It could also affect insurance coverage for the millions of self-employed women, as well as women who have purchased expensive insurance plans in the individual market who will seek less expensive policies through these exchanges.”

• On November 7, 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a letter to the House of Representatives, urging House members to vote against the Stupak amendment. The letter presents numerous facts about the state of women’s health care today and how the amendment would curb those even further.

• Read an analysis published on November 16, 2009, by the George Washington University Medical Center on how curbing abortion rights in the health care reform would impact women.

• Read an analysis by Frederick Clarkson:  “Anti-Abortion Strategy in the Age of Obama” (PublicEyre.org) and by the same author ” From Right-Wing to Pro-Choice:  The Shifting Goalposts of  ‘Abortion Neutrality’ ” (Religion Dispatches)

• Catholics for Choice support health care reform that includes coverage for abortions according to their most recent poll. More polls can be found at Women and Health Care Reform that reveal that voters strongly support women’s health provision in health care reform.

• Planned Parenthood has also published the impact of the Stupak amendment:
  • “Millions of women would lose benefits that they currently have and millions more would be prohibited from getting the kind of private sector health care coverage that most women have today. To put a fine point on it, millions of women would lose private coverage for abortion services and millions more would be prohibited from buying it even with their own money. Simply put, women’s access to private coverage for abortion would be restricted by health care reform.”

• MediaMatters for America has revealed that FOX News falsely suggested that the Senate bill “allows funding for abortion.” Here are the facts they uncovered, contrary to what was reported by FOX News.

• Read a roundup of articles, blogs and fact sheets on RH Reality Check.

• Learn more about the Stupak-Pitts Amendment from a fact sheet by the National Women’s Law Center.

• National Education Association: Unfair To Women (Dec. 22)