Doug Lamborn, the Second District’s Republican representative, spent the earlier part of this week holding an anti-abortion health care news conference with political advocates from Focus on the Family Action.
Lamborn and friends insisted that Congress strike abortions from any plans that would be federally subsidized.
Here’s what Lamborn didn’t mention about reproduction in Colorado: right now, individual insurance plans in the Centennial State simply don’t offer maternity coverage—because they don’t have to. (Visit a site like ehealthinsurance.com and see for yourself.)
Women on the individual health insurance market who would like to get pregnant must purchase special supplemental policies in advance and hold them for an obligatory waiting period before spawning offspring.
Since insurance companies know that the only people buying the supplemental plans intend to get pregnant, you can imagine that they are pretty lousy deals. And if you get knocked up without ’em? You better have $7,000-$10,000 lying around—and that’s assuming your baby comes out perfectly healthy.
But things could change. All three major health care bills working their way through Congress right now (S1679, HR3200, and S1796) would require insurance companies to offer maternity coverage in their standard plans, according to the National Women’s Law Center.
Lamborn, however, isn’t supporting any of them. And his preferred plan, HR 3400, doesn’t mention ceasing the practice of denying women maternity coverage.
Maybe before concerning ourselves with the abortions we might be supporting, we should consider offering women reasonable coverage for pregnancy and delivery. How’s that for family values?
And as for all the men who think they shouldn’t be on the hook for paying for pregnancies, here’s one of the best recent exchanges on that front, courtesy of the United States Senate:
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Az: “I don’t need maternity care and so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don’t need and will make the policy more expensive.”
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich: “I think your mom probably did.”
Just a little stunned that someone elected to Congress could think babies are a woman’s problem? Watch Sen. Kyl actually say this in person:
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