Feminists For Choice

On a 60-39 vote, the U.S. Senate finally passed sweeping health care reform. Although it isn’t anywhere near the bill that I had envisioned myself, it is an enormous step in the right direction. With all negative aspects considered, the bill does expand insurance coverage to nearly 30 million Americans who currently don’t have access to health care. Jill, at Feministe, does a damn good job explaining the myriad of reasons why the advantages of this particular bill still outweigh the disadvantages.

This weekend, as we know, was a mess for health care reform. The reproductive rights restrictions are pretty terrible (not as bad as the restrictions passed in the House, but still not good). The fact that the public option was scrapped is incredibly disappointing. I can understand why liberals are upset (I’m upset!).

But I still support passing the bill, mostly for the reasons that Alex Pareene lays out. It would be great to scrap this bill and start over and get a better bill out there, but that isn’t a realistic possibility. That is just not going to happen. So we’re stuck with an unfortunate choice between this bill and the status quo. I think this bill is better.

This bill also isn’t the end-all be-all of health care reform. It can be tinkered with and adjusted and improved in the coming years — and liberals should certainly focus our efforts on that.

But our current heath care situation is just too dire to “kill the bill.” If you believe that this bill will make things worse, then by all means oppose it. But it seems to me that the bill is a net gain. It contains some really less-than-ideal provisions, and it’s not nearly as good as the bill that progressives envisioned. It’s a teeny tiny step forward. But it’s a step.

The all-but-lovely restrictions on abortion access have almost sent me over the edge. After hearing about the Nelson “compromise” I was pretty positive that I was going to join the bandwagon of liberals lobbying to kill the bill, however; after some serious thinking, I came to the conclusion that the status quo is simply unlivable for not only women, but every single American struggling without health care coverage. In fact, here are some of the benefits to the Senate bill,

The 10-year $871 billion measure would expand Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor, and create new tax subsidies to help lower- and middle-income families comply with a mandate to purchase insurance. That mandate would be enforced by a financial penalty of up to $750 for any individual who fails to get coverage.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the legislation would reduce the budget deficit by $132 billion over the next decade, through a combination of tax increases on the health-care sector and spending cuts, which largely fall on Medicare payments to health-care providers.

As soon as next year, consumers who enroll in new plans would no longer face lifetime limits on their insurance coverage, and insurers couldn’t drop people’s coverage because they get sick. By 2014, insurers could no longer deny any customers coverage because of a pre-existing health condition.

Although I don’t think post-bill-reform is going to be quite as simple as a lot of leftist progressives make it out to be, I will remain optimistic that our more liberal democrats will work to expand access even further in the coming years.