http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/us/politics/09abortion.html?hp
is about the debate on whether federal subsidized insurance plans would cover abortions. I found it helpful because of its information on how abortion is currently covered by health plans.
Some of my takeaways from this article were:
- In 2003, only 13% of abortions were billed directly to insurance.
- About half of employee-sponsored insurance plans currently cover elective abortion.
- A ban on federal-financing of abortions is currently in place. Seventeen state Medicaid programs currently cover abortion by using state funds, the rest do not cover it.
- Even if abortion is not covered by federally subsidized health insurance plans, women will be able to buy supplemental insurance coverage for abortions. But it is unlikely that many would, because, as the article puts it, "few [women] plan for unintended pregnancies."
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Here's another article on the abortion issue from CNN: "Senate controversy over abortion already underway." (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/09/senate-controversy-over-abortion-already-underway/)
Except this article focuses mainly on the fact that the debate over abortion restrictions threatens to derail health care reform. Oddly enough, this wasn't even one of the biggest issues in health care reform over the last few months. Instead, everyone was so focused on the public option...
And now, Democrats in both the House and the Senate are threatening to pull the plug on health care reform if their (opposing) views aren't supported. There is enough debate just within the Democratic party that the Republicans seem to be left out of this one.
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