Health care debate lurches toward climax
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WASHINGTON -- As the White House and congressional aides continued Tuesday to adjust the final health care reform bill, their package of changes did not address an issue that could sink their end-stage efforts: abortion.
The House's passage of its health care reform bill in November wasn't assured until a group of anti-abortion Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., won a concession that banned all abortion coverage in the new health insurance exchange.
Mr. Stupak and anti-abortion groups have said the Senate bill's approach to abortion is insufficient, forcing another potential standoff. And because abortion can't be included in the reconciliation package of Senate bill modifications that the House could vote on this week, there is no apparent wiggle room.
White House officials on Tuesday said the reconciliation bill, which can pass the Senate with 51 votes if it finds 216 votes for House passage, cannot change the Senate abortion-coverage wording because the reconciliation process can only deal with matters that affect the budget.
That leaves the White House and Democratic leaders arguing to wavering anti-abortion Democrats -- potentially a critical group in the razor-thin vote -- that the Senate bill does not indirectly use taxpayer funds for abortions.
A co-sponsor of the Stupak amendment, Pennsylvania's Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Erie, is among that group. She said Tuesday that she would like to see the abortion language changed from the provisions authored by Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., with input from Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa. When told that it couldn't be done in the reconciliation process, she responded, "Anything's possible."
But Ms. Dahlkemper would not call the abortion provision a dealbreaker, and said that before she made her decision, she would await the final bill's details and the Congressional Budget Office accounting of its cost, which could be revealed as soon as today.
The Senate bill would allow the state-based health insurance exchanges to offer at least one plan that covers abortions and at least one that does not. Participants in the exchanges can buy a plan that includes abortion coverage but must pay a separate fee for that coverage, to be segregated from federal health insurance subsidies.
Many anti-abortion groups, including the powerful U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, say this amounts to back-door funding of abortions because insurers that get tax credits will be providing abortions. Mr. Stupak agrees, and has said a large enough bloc of anti-abortion Democrats will be able to kill this bill.
First Published March 17, 2010 12:00 am
