/Long-Ass Rant Follows*Beware*
This is a diatribe. It’s possibly an indictment of how inept I am at educating those around me on the issues about which I research and write every day. It’s a teensy-tiny angry finger-pointing at the progressive or non-traditional media outlets that cover current news. And, finally, it’s an honest exploration of how exactly women’s organizations, reproductive rights and health advocates, women’s rights activists, bloggers and others can immerse themselves so thoroughly in an issue only to come up for air and discover that not many people know what the hell we are talking about.
Health care reform is on a *lot* of Americans’ minds these days, right? Over the holiday long weekend it came up any number of times with friends and family. How bad is the Senate health care reform bill, really? Will health care reform actually be a boon for the insurance companies? Is the elimination of pre-existing conditions going to cost Americans more for health care? Who wins? Who loses?
What rarely comes up (okay, really, it never came up without my prodding) was what abortion coverage in both the House and Senate bills looked like. No one debated the merits of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. No one asked what the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was doing inserting anti-choice language into a health care reform bill that should remain “abortion neutral” because why should health reform address something that is already legal and legislated? No one discussed the reasons for or against, under any circumstances, the passage of health care reform by sacrificing women’s rights and health.
First, a little background: I am a 40 year old (okay I’m actually moments away from turning 41, now are you happy?), middle-class woman, heterosexual, married with two children, living in Seattle. My friends and family, strong progressive-minded, politically active people, fall in the low-income to middle-income range – some with young children and absolutely no health insurance, some with the barest of health insurance coverage. I have family members who are extremely grateful bearers of excellent health insurance coverage, squeezing every last drop out of their coverage because of chronic, ongoing or debilitating health conditions. I have others in my life who could accidentally cut themselves, bleed for hours and, in their health care coverage void, research Mayan prayers for healing on the internet in order to avoid paying outrageous sums of money (which they cannot afford) for emergency care. What we all do seem to have in common is an interest in and a fairly strong grasp on what health care reform looks like or should look like in general, what the current issues encompass, what the political landscape looks like at any given time, and what it all might mean for “the people.”
But unless I, the lone voice on “women’s issues”, bring up what exactly women’s health access might look like if we were to pass Stupak-Pitts in the final bill (or some incarnation of it), or what maternity care coverage might look like, for example, the issues never arose.
So when my brother told me that, after talking with my mother, she was under the mistaken idea that the Stupak-Pitts Amendment would simply ensure that the federal government be barred (as it is now, a la the Hyde Amendment) from funding abortion services for low-income women (except in “extreme” circumstances), I was shocked. My own mother didn’t really know what the Stupak Amendment codified, why it was introduced or who was behind it (not just Rep. Bart Stupak, and anti-choice Democrat but the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – the men behind the men). I clearly am not doing nearly as thorough a job as I thought I was.
It’s a problem.
It’s not that my mother and other progressives aren’t fuming at the lack of a public option, frustrated about what this “reform” bill has turned into: something Obama’s Clinton-era staffers pooped out in fear (We don’t want to offend anyone, do we? We don’t want to seem (gasp!) like socialist radicals. My god, we wouldn’t want the government running health care! That’s socialist. Just like that socialist Medicare system, or Medicaid, or public transit, or our roads system, or, oh, police officers, the fire department…okay, well, those are different somehow, right?). My family and friends are angry at the fact that it certainly seems, despite some modest gains for some, insurance companies still stand to make a profit, without much change for the average American.
But their anger is not about abortion access or coverage or the ways in which Rep. Stupak, and his cohort of Democratic anti-choice lawmakers have leveraged this as a wedge issue to stymie reform efforts. They do not know that the Stupak Amendment doesn’t simply re-codify the Hyde Amendment. The Stupak Amendment goes much, much farther by restricting private insurance companies from covering abortion if anyone in their pool is also a member of the health exchange – the federally funded insurance program.
The thing is, there is so much more behind this absurdity. Most people don’t know that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (UCSSB) stands to make a LOT of money if health care reform passes. We know that with reform will come millions more Americans with some kind of insurance coverage – whether it be through private insurance, a subsidized plan or a combination of both. There will be lots more money flowing through private insurance companies, undoubtedly. But what about the UCSSB?
The USCCB runs hundreds of hospitals, medical centers and health facilities around the country from which they make billions of dollars. My colleague at RH Reality Check, Wendy Norris, is an investigative reporter. She breaks it down:
One in six patients are cared for in 624 Catholic hospitals scattered throughout the U.S. in 2006, according to the Catholic Health Association. The church also operates more than 800 post-acute care, senior living and skilled nursing centers across the nation. All told, $84.6 billion was spent on Catholic church-affiliated care…
…consider that there are 60 some Catholic-affiliated hospital systems in all 50 states — representing 13 percent of the nation’s entire in-patient health care system. That’s easily tens of billions of dollars flowing through the business arm of the Catholic church that continues to grow through mergers with private and other religiously-affiliated hospitals.
Tens. of billions. of dollars. flowing through the Catholic church. And you thought this was about religion?! Or even ideology?We know the truth. It’s about power and money. This is not a theorem, it’s an easily solvable equation.
So, the Catholic church stands to profit tremendously with health care reform as is. But, of course, they are the ones behind the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, the amendment that may have a partner in the Senate, that threatens to derail health care reform efforts. So why would USCCB put considerable power behind this amendment when their very business, their ability to reap billions more in profit, is at stake if health care reform doesn’t happen?
Norris theorizes it’s simply a “brazen attempt” to “kneecap their competitors” while still taking advantage of what health care reform efforts will bring for the USCCB.
Whether or not this is true, this is still a critical time for women’s health care advocacy. The Mikulski Amendment passed today (I wrote about it here) which is great news for women who already have insurance. The Senate bill does not, as of yet, have a Stupak-like amendment, though Sen. Ben Nelson (R-NE) is reported to be brewing something in his evil laboratory. Even if he comes up with nothing but a steaming, bubbling beaker filled with benign liquid, we’ll still need to rally efforts behind the combined Senate/House health care reform bill and make sure reform does not pass on the backs of women in this country.
I am not a political poker chip. Except that Stupak-Pitts does exactly that – makes women’s lives another part of this game. And it is a game. If it weren’t, there’d be no need to simply “re-codify” the Hyde Amendment. This is about using women’s lives as pawns – pardon the boring metaphor – by seeing how far one can get on our backs. Keep going, I’ve almost made the Catholic hospitals one hundred million dollars, now one billion. Keep going – I’ve almost lined my own legislative pockets with the political good will to get re-elected.
So, while this is my own little diatribe – frustration, sadness, confusion, and passion shaken, stirred and boiling over – When I take a breath, clear my mind and listen to my thoughts here’s what I’ve got:
I’m not bitter. I’m just alive and energized and willing to stand up for all women in this country. Because as long as I’m breathing, and as long as I have my two beautiful children’s eyes to look into each and every day, I know that there are fights worth fighting. Energies worth emanating. Journeys worth following. This is one of them.