Health Reform


Dear Supporters and Activists,

Watch this short video on what's happening now with health care reform — and make sure your friends, your family, and everyone you know sees it, too. And check out our quick Q&A after watching the video.





     



Know the Answers!

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    What is the Stupak amendment?

    The Stupak ban would effectively prohibit any coverage of abortion in the new "exchange," or marketplace, established by health reform. This ban would apply to both the proposed public option and to private plans.

    Currently, a majority of private health insurance plans cover abortion care. But if your employer obtains your insurance in the future through the new exchange you could lose that coverage.


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    What does the new abortion language in the Senate bill do?

    The new abortion language in the Senate bill establishes an unworkable system that creates enormous administrative burdens for individuals and health plans for no policy reason and stigmatizes abortion care.

    Under the Nelson abortion check provision, individuals who choose a health plan that includes abortion care are required to write two separate premium checks, one for abortion care and one for everything else. This has the same effect as an abortion rider, a policy that requires individuals to purchase a single-service abortion policy separate from their health insurance package.


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    What’s at stake in health care reform?

    Health care reform must not leave women worse off after reform than they are today. Comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion care, must be included. Essential community providers – like Planned Parenthood – must be part of the exchange.


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    What is the exchange?

    The new health insurance "exchange" or marketplace is intended to provide a new source of affordable, quality coverage for two significant portions of the population. First, the exchange would offer private health plans and a public option to many of the 46 million uninsured Americans. The exchange would also offer coverage to millions of Americans who work for themselves or for small businesses.


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    What is the Capps compromise?

    The Capps compromise is a fair compromise worked out by pro-choice and anti-choice members of Congress to ensure that no federal funding would be used to pay for abortions while also ensuring that women do not lose the benefits they currently have.


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    How does the Stupak amendment differ from the Capps amendment?

    The Stupak amendment would effectively ban all abortion coverage in the "exchange." The Stupak ban would deny women the right to choose a plan that covers abortion. Stupak would force millions of women to lose private coverage for abortion care, and millions more could be prohibited from buying it even with their own money.

    Simply put, women’s access to private coverage for abortion would be severely restricted by the Stupak ban, if it becomes the law of the land.

    Under Capps, no federal funds would be used for abortion. The funds would be segregated from private dollars.


If Uncle Bill wants to debate, here are a few points that even he will have a tough time responding to.

  • Stupak amounts to nothing less than an unacceptable “middle-class abortion ban.”
    If this bill becomes law, millions of middle-class women could be prohibited from buying, through the exchange, private insurance that covers abortion, a legal medical procedure.
  • Members of Congress who voted for the Stupak ban are expressing “buyer’s remorse,” and President Obama has indicated that Stupak goes too far.
    Members of Congress have been saying in public interviews that they didn’t realize the impact of Stupak before they voted for this proposal. Now that they have come to fully appreciate the impact of the Stupak ban, they are indicating that Stupak went too far.

For more answers and information about health care reform, visit the Action Center.