ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Putin Punishes Georgia</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style3 { height: 68px; } .MsoNormal {} h1 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; } .style4 { font-size: large; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial; } .style5 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> &nbsp;<table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="133" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="7" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="482" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="1" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="300" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="624" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style3"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="2"> <td width="133" height="2">&nbsp;</td> <td width="489" height="2576" colspan="3" rowspan="2" align="left" xpos="133" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <p class="style4">Health Care Approaches</p> <p><b><font face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica">by John M. Curtis</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> (310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright Dec. 17, 2009<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <bAbout the Author</u> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style5">&nbsp;S</span>eeking a vote on historic health care reform legislation by Dec. 31, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) bit his tongue while his colleague Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) tossed another monkey wrench into the mix.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Only last week Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) played spoiler, threatening to filibuster if Reid didn t remove the Medicare-by-55 provision, now in the dustbin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> As it is, without modifications, the language concerning abortion is not sufficient, said Nelson, unwilling to vote for the bill s current language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Pro-life groups have rallied hard to prevent federal tax dollars from paying for abortions, despite objections from liberals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Nelson couldn t stomach provisions that allowed private groups to pay for abortions, regardless of the circumstance, like the health of the mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Without abortion funding or a  government option, liberals, like former Vermont. Gov. Howard Dean, want the bill dead.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Round-the-clock, back-and-forth, backdoor negotiations among liberals, moderates and conservatives have revolved around industry-wide profit, concerned that ending the insurance industry s anti-trust exemption and current ban on preexisting conditions would decimate Wall Street s earnings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Despite all the worries about Nelson, Lieberman or whomever, Democrats health reform juggernaut continues along the inexorable track toward passage, most likely on President Barack Obama s Christmas Eve deadline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Pulling out the big guns, former President Bill Clinton, whose own attempt at health care reform failed in 1993, urged Democrats to find common ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Allowing this effort to fall short now would be a colossal blunder, both politically for our party, and far more important, for the physical, fiscal and economic health of our country, read Clinton s prepared statement.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Attempts by so-called moderate Democrats to write abortion funding out of health care reform legislation puts doctors and patients at risk, making no sense medically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Most health plans cover abortions when doctors use alternative diagnoses to justify paying for controversial procedures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Getting the  language right for pro-life Democrats is yet another exercise in futility to placate conservatives, who unanimously oppose the Obama-Reid-Pelsosi health care reform legislation<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Sen. Bob Kerry (D-Penn.) wrote the new language hoping to assuage Nelson, assuring that public funds would not be used to pay for abortion coverage, especially for low-income citizens most likely the recipients of government largesse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Nelson wants to keep private money away from paying for abortions on any health plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He naively forgets how doctors get paid for various controversial procedures. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Pro-life groups, including the United States Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops, lobby hard to provide more funding for adoption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> We re trying to get this right, said Casey, in response to changing language to jump through pro-life hoops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> I ve had ideas on the table for a while now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>I m still working through them and we ll keep talking to anyone who wants to discuss it, referring to the gyrations needed to placate last-ditch Democrats holdouts like Nelson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>At stake is a $10,000 to $11,000 increase in adoption tax credits, designed to fund more alternatives to abortion, amounting to $350 million over 10 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Nelson also wants a  conscience clause allowing health care providers legal protections for refusing to perform abortions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He also wants stronger language that prevents either public or private premium dollars from paying for abortions.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Few expected the final skirmishes on national health care reform to be about abortion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Lieberman s concern, that torpedoed expanding Medicare to 55-year-olds, had to do with fiscal concerns about the single-payer government health plan s fiscal solvency and exploding federal budget deficits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Medicare currently funds abortions for disabled individuals choosing to terminate pregnancies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Worries that the new legislation  still allows federal subsidies for plans that cover abortion-on-demand which is entirely unacceptable bothers pro-life groups, like Nebraska Right to Life, according to its executive director Julie Schmit-Albin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>She doesn t want the federal government paying for insurance policies that cover abortion-on-demand as health care treatment. Schmit-Albin makes exceptions when the health of the mother is at stake, or, in rare instances, for rape or incest.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>National health care legislation is designed to make medical insurance more available to the uninsured and bring down the premium costs to employers and individuals unable to afford health insurance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Letting the abortion controversy derail important health care reform legislation turns the legislative process on its head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Health reform is not a political football to resolve age-old philosophical disputes:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>It s about extending health coverage, preventing unfair insurance industry practices and making coverage more affordable to businesses and individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bending the Senate s language to fit the House s version that bans federal subsidies to plans that cover abortion would satisfy holdouts like Nelson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Given that the Senate will adopt the House s language by Christmas Eve, it s growing more likely that Obama, Reid and Pelosi will get something from Santa Claus.</p> <h1> About the Author </h1> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author <i>of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a></i> and <i><a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a></i>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td width="133" height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="133" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">©1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"> Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>