Blogs Comment On Obama Budget Proposal, Health Care Reform, Other Topics

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP;  Abortion
Article Date: 11 May 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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The following summarizes selected women's health-related blog entries.

~ Blog Posts Examine Reproductive Health Provisions in Obama's Budget Proposal, David Castillo/Nancy Northup/Marilyn Keefe: The "outlook is somewhat bleak for family planning" under Obama's fiscal 2010 budget proposal released on Thursday, David Castillo writes in a Family PlanIt blog entry. Although Title X received a $10 million increase, it is "a far cry from the nearly $400 million increase family planning supporters have been asking for," he writes, adding that it is "unfortunate that the budget missed an opportunity to make a substantial investment in a program that is proven to work." He also notes that the budget proposal would increase eligibility for family planning services under Medicaid for women with incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty level (Castillo, Family PlanIt, 5/7). Meanwhile, Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup writes in a Huffington Post blog entry that she is "deeply disappointed" with Obama's "failure to strike government funding restriction on abortion" from the budget, especially the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funding for abortion under Medicaid. "At a time in our nation's history when Americans at every income level are losing their jobs and their health benefits, guaranteeing access to affordable, quality health care, including reproductive health care, is imperative," Northup writes. The Hyde Amendment "unjustly impedes women's access to timely, quality health care and disproportionately harms those women who already face significant barriers to obtaining services," she continues, adding, "Sound public health policy means protecting the well-being of all women" (Northup, Huffington Post blogs, 5/8). Marilyn Keefe of the National Partnership for Women and Families writes in a RH Reality Check blog entry that although the budget "contains a dose of heartache," it also "contains some recommendations that should buoy those of us working to improve women's reproductive health," including increases to Medicaid family planning, Title X and international family planning groups and cuts to funding for abstinence-only sex education programs. However, it is disappointing that Obama's proposal "leaves the door open" to maintain some federal funding for abstinence-only programs and fails to remove federal abortion restrictions, Keefe says. "There's agony to go with the ecstasy, and perhaps more than anything real disappointment with the too prevalent view that compromise on reproductive health issues is necessary to foster bipartisan dialogue in this country," Keefe concludes (Keefe, RH Reality Check, 5/8).

~ "Remember Mama?" Elizabeth Gregory, Huffington Post blogs: In the nearly 50 years since FDA approved birth control pills for general use, "women still haven't done more than trickle up into policy-making roles," and "[e]ven though women can now time their births, our nation's lack of a family-support infrastructure holds them back," Gregory, an author and professor at the University of Houston, writes. Women with children, in particular, are held back "with a dirty laundry list of inequalities," including inadequate child care, unfair pay and a lack of sick leave, she continues. She adds, "Increasingly, access to birth control and abortion have been limited as well, especially for the poor." Gregory writes, "The rationale we're given for this mistreatment holds choice against moms: It was their choice to have kids, so any consequences are their problem." However, "the kids they bear and raise are essential to the operation of commerce and of the nation, which demand citizens, workers and consumers for their continuation," she says. President Obama's administration "has already signaled its woman-friendliness through a number of bills already passed" and through the creation of a White House Council on Women and Girls, Gregory writes. However, women with children "nee[d] more," including the Commission on Women, proposed by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), to "take a big-picture look at the circumstances that hold women back economically and socially, and to recommend specific actions to rectify those." Gregory concludes that it is "[t]ime for legislators to remember the ladies, and the mamas, at last" (Gregory, Huffington Post blogs, 5/6).

~ "Words Designed To Kill Health Care Reform," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Huffington Post blogs: Merkley writes that he was "shocked" when he read a memo written by GOP strategist Frank Luntz "laying out plans to dismantle any effort to give all Americans access to quality health care." The memo "is not a strategy to push certain ideas about health reform" but is "a strategy intended solely to kill reform effort altogether," Merkley says. He continues that Luntz's "strategy is predicated on deception," including a "ridiculous" effort to call health care reform a "'bailout for the insurance industry,'" a "statement ... developed to serve the same interests who stopped at nothing to derail health care reform" in the past. "We certainly do not all agree on what a reformed health system should look like, but there are people on all sides who are negotiating in good faith," he continues, concluding, "The country deserves that debate on the merits, not poll-tested attack lines intended to prolong the broken system we have today" (Merkley, Huffington Post blogs, 5/7).

~ "Sessions: I Could Support Pro-Choice or Gay Supreme Court Nominee," Sam Stein, Huffington Post blogs: Social conservatives likely were not pleased with comments from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, during a Fox News interview, Stein writes. He adds that Sessions said "he could see himself" voting for a Supreme Court nominee who supports abortion rights. Stein notes that Sessions also said he does not "believe in a litmus test'" and is comfortable with a judge who has "a different view on abortion than I have." According to Stein, when specifically asked whether a nominee who supports abortion rights could receive his backing if she or he was brought to the committee, Sessions said "yes" and added that he is interested in how the nominee would "analyze the logic behind Roe v. Wade." Sessions continued that if the nominee is "faithful to the law, then we can get along pretty well." Stein writes, "The jurisprudence and politics of the senator's remarks provide two very interesting and different story lines," adding that Sessions "could (and probably will) qualify his remarks by saying he would only support a pro-choice Supreme Court nominee who believed that the topic should be addressed by the states." According to Stein, Sessions did add at the conclusion of the Fox interview that "the question would be whether they are activist or not." However, it is difficult to see how social conservatives prepared for "nomination fights" will be at ease witnessing "one of the most influential Republicans in this battle ceding such ground" (Stein, Huffington Post blogs, 5/8).

~ "Insurance Companies Tell Congress: You Sell Us Your Soul, We'll End Discrimination," Lois Uttley, RH Reality Check: Uttley, director of the MergerWatch Project and a co-founder of Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need, writes that there is a "catch or two" to America's Health Insurance Plans, Karen Ignagni's proposal to end the health insurance industry's practice of "gender rating," by which insurers charge women higher premiums than men. AHIP's offer to end the practice hinges on whether Congress would mandate health insurance for all U.S. residents and "promise not to give private health insurance plans any competition by creating a government-sponsored health insurance option that might be cheaper and fairer," Uttley writes. The "clear" message was that the insurance industry "is so desperate to avoid competition from a proposed public insurance plan that it will pledge to do away with a number of longstanding, and outrageous, business practices," including gender rating, Uttley says. Furthermore, "[e]nding discrimination against women should not be contingent on giving private health insurance companies a monopoly to sell us high-priced health coverage." Uttley notes that Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has introduced legislation (S. 969), called the Women's Health Insurance Fairness Act, that would prohibit gender rating practices by insurers, require maternity coverage and "stop insurers from refusing or limiting coverage based on whether a woman is pregnant." She writes, "Gender rating can and should be ended as soon as possible, either by the insurance companies themselves or through enactment of Kerry's legislation" (Uttley, RH Reality Check, 5/7).

~ "The GOP Doesn't Understand Sex," Meghan McCain, The Daily Beast: "There's an especially unhealthy attitude among conservatives," about sex, McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), writes. She adds, "God forbid anyone talk realistically about life experiences and natural, sexual instincts. Nope, the answer is always abstinence." She continues, "Here's what I've never understood about the [Republican] Party: its resistance to discussing better access to birth control. As a Republican, I am pro-life. But using birth control and having an abortion are not the same at all." In fact, the "best way to prevent abortions is to educate people about birth control and make it widely and easily accessible," she says, adding that while it's true that "abstinence is the only way to fully prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases," the "problem with abstinence-only education is that it does not make teenagers and young adults more knowledgeable about all the issues they face if or when they have sex." According to McCain, the "worst thing parents can do is raise children who are not prepared for the situations they may encounter, especially when they're not planned." She writes, "Unfortunately, Republicans typically don't like to discuss or deal with things they think are wrong or immoral," which is a "huge mistake." McCain continues, "If we can't discuss birth control in addition to abstinence ... kids will continue to make bad choices for lack of having access to informed, safe options," which is why it's crucial "to encourage honest, open communication about the realities of sex within" the Republican Party. She concludes that the "bottom line" is "[h]onesty isn't a liberal or conservative issue. It's a human one. The sooner we realize that, the better off we'll be" (McCain, The Daily Beast, 5/7).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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