Slate Column Refutes Stupak's Claim That Senate Health Reform Bill Includes Federal Abortion Funding

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 08 Mar 2010 - 2:00 PDT

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Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) claim that the Senate health reform bill (HR 3590) would allow taxpayer dollars to be used to cover abortion services "concerns (or at least pretends to concern) matters of fact, not belief," Slate columnist Timothy Noah writes. The "question of whether the government funds a given medical procedure is not like the question of whether life begins at conception," Noah says, adding, "It's empirical, not ideological. And Stupak happens to be wrong."

According to Noah, Stupak's claim "is important because abortion is the single likeliest issue to scuttle the bill," as Stupak says he has at least 12 House members willing to vote against a final measure that does not include his amendment banning abortion coverage under plans that accept federal subsidies. "The trouble is, Stupak's language can't be shoehorned" into the legislation "because it's non-budgetary and therefore ineligible for inclusion in a budget reconciliation bill," Noah continues.

In a recent appearance on "Good Morning America," Stupak said that a certain page of the Senate bill includes language that says "the federal government would directly subsidize abortions." However, Noah writes, the Senate bill's text actually reads, "If a qualified plan provides (abortion) coverage ... the issuer of the plan shall not use any amount attributable to (health reform's government-funding mechanisms) for the purposes of paying for such services." Noah writes, "That seems pretty straightforward," adding, "If a health insurer selling through the exchanges wishes to offer abortion coverage, ... then the insurer must collect from each enrollee (regardless of sex or age) a separate payment to cover abortion." The payment must then be kept separate "to ensure it won't be comingled with so much as a nickel of government subsidy," Noah states.

"What really rankles Stupak ... isn't that the Senate bill commits taxpayer dollars to funding abortion," Noah continues. "Rather it's that the Senate bill commits taxpayer dollars to people who buy private insurance policies that happen to cover abortion at nominal cost to the purchaser ... and no cost at all to the insurer," according to Noah. Stupak does not "have beef with government spending" but "with market economics," Noah says (Noah, Slate, 3/4).

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