Reid Unveils Senate Health Reform Bill With Less Restrictive Abortion Provision Than Final House Measure

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 20 Nov 2009 - 2:00 PST

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday unveiled the chamber's version of health care reform legislation, which he said would extend coverage to 31 million uninsured U.S. residents while reducing the federal deficit, the New York Times reports. The bill would cost $848 billion over 10 years but would reduce projected budget deficits by $130 billion over 10 years by offsetting its costs with new taxes, fees and reductions in Medicare growth, Reid said (Pear/Herszenhorn, New York Times, 11/19).

According to the Washington Post, the bill would require most people to obtain health insurance, create health insurance exchanges for people to shop for individual coverage and enact new rules for insurance companies, including a ban on the practice of denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. The bill also includes a public plan option, which states can opt out of by passing their own legislation (Murray/Montgomery, Washington Post, 11/19).

Reid's bill includes numerous abortion-related restrictions but does not go as far as the House version in restricting coverage. Reid's version would allow people who receive insurance subsidies to choose a plan that covers abortion but require insurers to use premium money or copayments contributed by consumers, and not federal subsidies, to cover the cost of abortion care. The bill also would require the proposed health insurance exchanges to offer at least one plan that covers abortion services and one that does not and prohibits the use of federal subsidies to cover abortion services in any public plan (Seelye, "Prescriptions," New York Times, 11/18). According to Politico's "Live Pulse," the bill also contains a so-called "conscience clause," which would allow insurance companies to deny abortion coverage and health care providers to deny performing procedures they oppose on moral or religious grounds (O'Connor, "Live Pulse," Politico, 11/18).

Several Democratic senators who support abortion rights said Reid's language on the issue was acceptable, including Sens. John Kerry (Mass.), Barbara Mikulski (Md.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.), CQ Today reports. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who had urged Reid to include restrictions on abortion coverage, said Reid told him the bill's language was a "good-faith effort" to satisfy abortion-rights opponents.

Abortion-rights supporters in the Senate were concerned that Reid's bill would contain language similar to an amendment in the House bill (HR 3962) that would prohibit the public plan option from covering abortion services as well as prohibit women who receive federal subsidies from purchasing a plan that covers abortion services through the proposed exchange (Wayne/Armstrong, CQ Today, 11/18). Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), an abortion-rights supporter, said the Senate's version of the bill is "reasonable." She added, "It appears that their approach closely mirrors my language, which was originally included in the House bill" before the inclusion of the more restrictive amendment in the final version.

The language in Reid's bill is unlikely to settle the issue of abortion coverage as health reform legislation moves forward, the New York Times' "Prescriptions" blog reports. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has said he will introduce an amendment with restrictions similar to those in the House bill. Even if such an amendment fails in the Senate, the House bill's language "guarantees that the issue will come up" when the two chambers conference on a final bill, "Prescriptions" reports. The National Right to Life Committee said in a statement, "This would be federal government funding of abortion, no matter how hard they try to disguise it" (Seelye, "Prescriptions," New York Times, 11/18).

Possible Vote for Floor Debate by Thanksgiving

The "first test" for Reid's bill will come when the Senate casts a procedural vote, most likely on Saturday, to determine whether floor debate on the bill can move forward, the Los Angeles Times reports. Reid needs all 58 Democratic senators and the two independents who caucus with them to vote to move the bill forward. Republicans have threatened to filibuster. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Senate could begin debating amendments after Thanksgiving if the bill is advanced on Saturday, with a potential vote on the final bill before Christmas (Levey/Hook, Los Angeles Times, 11/19).

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