Protect Women - Take Action
Posted on October 13th, 2011 by Melinda Gibson in Congress Watch, From Insurance Company Rules, From Our Partners, Insurance NightmaresToday, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 358, a dangerous anti-women's health bill that undermines access to care. It is no surprise that House Republicans would rather play politics with women's health than focus on jobs and the economy.
Call your Member of Congress today toll free - (877) 264-HCAN (4226) and tell them to vote NO on H.R. 358.
Here is the letter HCAN signed along with over 50 other organizations vehemently opposing this bill.
Below are some important facts from National Women's Law Center on this issue. You can download the full fact sheet here.
H.R. 358, authored by Representative Joe Pitts (R-PA), threatens women's ability to purchase health insurance that includes abortion coverage and creates dangerous new rules that will harm women's health-and even risk women's lives.
- H.R. 358 would virtually prohibit health plans in the new health insurance exchanges from covering abortion services, even though most health insurance covers it today.
- The bill exempts hospitals from treating women in need of emergency abortion care, even if they will die without it.
- H.R. 358 allows states to exempt health insurance plans from complying with any obligation under the new health law if it offends the insurer's "conscience." For example, an insurer could refuse to cover contraception, the HPV vaccine or any other service.
Here are some messages and talking points from Planned Parenthood on H.R. 358:
- This legislation represents yet another attempt by some Republican leaders to force consideration of policies that would drastically erode women's health and reduce access to basic health care services and information.
- This bill would take comprehensive health coverage away from women, eliminate existing legal protections for women who need an abortion to save their lives, expand current refusal laws that undermine women's health, and create loopholes that states and insurance companies could exploit to undermine the requirement that insurance companies provide birth control with no co-pays.
- Most devastating, the bill eliminates protections for patients seeking care in emergency circumstances and would allow a hospital to deny lifesaving abortion care to a woman, even if a doctor deems it necessary.
- Any politician who votes for this bill is literally putting politics before women's health.
- This is the latest example that Republican leaders prioritize putting politics before women's health, and just can't keep their eyes on the ball when it comes to jobs and the economy.