Planned Parenthood and Health Care Reform
The new health care reform law, despite including unacceptable restrictions on private insurance coverage for abortion, will extend either private health insurance or Medicaid coverage to millions of women. It will also dramatically increase access to reproductive health services, including family planning.
Planned Parenthood worked both behind the scenes with members of Congress and their staffs, as well as with White House staff, to include as many pro-women’s health provisions as possible in the health care reform bill. History will record the passage of this law as a victory for women’s health because it will:
- extend health care coverage to tens of millions of women and families who currently don't have insurance
- provide newly insured women access to preventive and primary health care from Planned Parenthood health centers across the country
- significantly increase access to reproductive health care, including family planning
- provide $75 million for comprehensive sex education and teen pregnancy prevention
- guarantee affordable access to lifesaving screenings for breast and cervical cancer
- stop the discriminatory practice of charging women more than men for health insurance
- end the practice of denying insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions, including breast cancer and pregnancy
Unfortunately, the bill retains the problematic Nelson abortion provision, which would require the following:
If a health plan chooses to provide coverage for abortion, it must collect two payments from all enrollees — one payment for abortion coverage and one payment for all other coverage. Health plans are required to deposit those payments into separate accounts made up of private funds and must ensure that abortion care is only paid for using private accounts designated for abortion payments.
These restrictions won't go into effect until 2014, and Planned Parenthood is working to try to fix them before they do.
Stopping Stupak
Planned Parenthood scored a major victory by leading the successful effort to defeat the anti-choice Stupak amendment in the Senate and keep it out of the final health care reform bill. This amendment would have resulted in the near-total ban of private health insurance coverage for abortion in the United States.
The national Stop Stupak Campaign involved more than 100,000 supporters from across the country and dozens of organizations. It was fueled by the justifiable anger sparked at the prospect of one man in the House of Representatives taking away private insurance coverage for abortion that millions of women have today.
In all, this campaign included more than 60 national organizations, including allies in the progressive and labor communities. On December 2, 2009, more than 1,300 activists and community leaders traveled by plane, train, and bus to Washington, DC, to lobby against the Stupak ban. Simultaneous Stop Stupak events were held on college campuses nationwide, and Planned Parenthood communicated its Stop Stupak message through earned media, paid ads, online advocacy and social media, editorials, op-eds, and letters to the editor.
Planned Parenthood and the coalition worked closely with members of the House Pro-Choice Caucus and women leaders in the House, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and we appreciate their leadership.