Abortion Demographics

Despite the drawback that facts don't play a role in abortion legislation, this is a good video from the Guttmacher Institute on abortion demographics:





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Paul Ryan: Private Health Care Decisions For All, Except Pregnant Patients

Paul Ryan, a Republican representative from Wisconsin, commenting on the recently passed health insurance reform bill:

We should ensure that health care decisions are made by patients and their doctors, not by bureaucrats, whether at an insurance company or a government agency.

Except, of course, if the patients happen to be pregnant women. For those patients Paul Ryan has voted to allow the, you know, government to:

1) Restrict their freedom of movement.

2) Exempt medical personnel and health care facilities who provide them with substandard care from responsibility.

3) Override the physician's medical judgment and practice medicine without a license.

We can only hope (in vain?) that there will come a day when voters recognize that, even when it comes to lowly, pariah pregnant women, politicians whose sacred mission in life is to make people wards of the state are not worthy of their vote.

Sen. Ben Nelson, Your Uterine Overlord

Photo via

Now that Sen. Ben Nelson, Uterine Overlord, and his Democrat colleagues Sen. Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have finally decided on a mutually agreeable horse-trade value of some of your internal organs, I thought it useful if we try to figure out what's just about to hit us in more ways than one.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that a secret huddle by our politicians and a most gentlemanly hand shake don't fill me with a frisson of abject gratitude and don't inspire the utmost confidence that Senate passage of this bill is imperative for the glory of the Vaterland. [Hmm, maybe I shouldn't hold back and use some hyperbole in my writing, right?]

It's just that when our beloved leaders name a bill the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act my default assumption is that the bill will neither protect patients nor offer affordable care. That's a brazen assumption and I better have some facts to support it.

So let's look at the abortion amendment and see if the facts support my assumption. TPM has posted the full text of the abortion amendment and so far I've deciphered subparagraph (A) (translation in bold):

subparagraph (A)

(A) A qualified health plan is not required to provide coverage for abortions for which public funding is prohibited or for which public funding is allowed. Health plans determine whether or not to cover abortions for which public funding is prohibited or allowed. States can void the determination made by health plans by enacting laws to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans in the Exchange.

So states can ban insurance companies from offering any and all coverage for a safe and effective legal procedure. So far, so good for State, God, and country, but not so much for patients. Not that it matters since this isn't about patients or their health.

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If you want to check my translation, here's how I did it:

(A) IN GENERAL.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this title (or any amendment made by this title)-- (i) nothing in this title (or any amendment made by this title), shall be construed to require a qualified health plan to provide coverage of services described in subparagraph (B)(i) [(i) ABORTIONS FOR WHICH PUBLIC FUNDING IS PROHIBITED.--The services described in this clause are abortions for which the expenditure of Federal funds appropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services is not permitted, based on the law as in effect as of the date that is 6 months before the beginning of the plan year involved.] or (B)(ii) [(ii) ABORTIONS FOR WHICH PUBLIC FUNDING IS ALLOWED.--The services described in this clause are abortions for which the expenditure of Federal funds appropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services is permitted, based on the law as in effect as of the date that is 6 months before the beginning of the plan year involved.] as part of its essential health benefits for any plan year; and ''(ii) subject to subsection (a) [(a) STATE OPT-OUT OF ABORTION COVERAGE.-- ''(1) IN GENERAL.--A State may elect to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange in such State if such State enacts a law to provide for such prohibition. (2) TERMINATION OF OPT OUT.-- A State may repeal a law described in paragraph (1) and provide for the offering of such services through the Exchange.], the issuer of a qualified health plan shall determine whether or not the plan provides coverage of services described in subparagraph (B)(i) or (B)(ii) as part of such benefits for the plan year.

Which leads us to:

(A) IN GENERAL.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this title (or any amendment made by this title)-- (i) nothing in this title (or any amendment made by this title), shall be construed to require a qualified health plan to provide coverage of abortions for which public funding is prohibited ((B)(i)) or abortions for which public funding is allowed ((B)(ii) as part of its essential health benefits for any plan year; and ''(ii) subject to a State's right to enact legislation to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange ( subsection (a)), the issuer of a qualified health plan shall determine whether or not the plan provides coverage of abortions for which public funding is prohibited (B)(i) or abortions for which public funding is allowed (B)(ii) as part of such benefits for the plan year.

Doctors Are So...Lame

The President talks to doctors in the Oval Office before a health insurance reform event on October 5.

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Who wears their white coat outside the office/hospital? Seriously, what is the thought process here: I'm invited to the White House, I get to meet the President, uh-oh I better make sure I bring along (and put on!) my white coat least the Marine guards mistake me for a non-doctor and don't let me in?

Lame people, extremely lame.

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Health Care Reform: The Really Bad vs The Even Worse

Our beloved government is moving to make health insurance mandatory and to fine you and your family up to $3,800 if you don't obey its most competent decree and fail to get medical insurance. (Personally, I'd tack a public flogging to the fine but that's just me.)

So, as a contribution to this most welcomed development, I thought I'd point you to a couple of articles on health care reform. After all you'll need some reading material while you take a break from scrounging the money to pay the fine (or to pay for whatever inadequate and mismanaged plan the politicians come up with, as the case may be).

Matt Taibbi has a very good report on how Washington is screwing up health care reform. The language is a bit crude at times (best to read it at home), but the piece is a very good overview of the:

1. current system and its problems

2. difference between single payer, public option, and the alternatives now being considered by Congress

3. various bills in the House and Senate

4. how the major players involved are gaming the system

5. lousy job performance of both the President and Congress

I strongly recommend you read the article.

There's also a piece from Jonathan Cohn you might find useful. His analysis of the health care reform developments is a bit facile, but, towards the end of the article, he has a good description of the process involved in passing a final bill (whatever that might be).


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Randall Terry Comes Out With His Eliminationist Healthcare Predictions

Photo by peteSwede

Randall Terry wants to know: If the government orders people to pay for the life of babies' mothers, if congress and the White House want to force Americans to pay for the lives and health of the pregnant woman in their "healthcare" program, if the government puts a gun to taxpayers' heads to pay for the ordinary life of an innocent woman of reproductive age, if there's a government policy decision to force Americans to pay for the lives of their pregnant neighbor, any bets on how long until the next Ob/Gyn is assassinated?

Negligence in Immigrant's Cancer Death

Photo by colros

Note to the federal government: Biopsying a large, painful, growing lesion on the penis is not considered "an elective outpatient procedure."