Friday, November 1, 2013

The Obamacare website doesn't show which plans cover abortion.

NPR reports:
The issue came up Wednesday when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified on Capitol Hill.

"If someone, a constituent of mine or someone in this country has strongly held pro-life views, can you commit to us to make sure that the federal exchanges that offer that is clearly identified and so people can understand if they're going to buy a policy that has abortion coverage or not?" asked Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. "Because right now, you cannot make that determination."

Sebelius appeared to be caught off guard by the question.

"I don't know," Sebelius replied. "I know exactly the issue you're talking about — I will check and make sure that is clearly identifiable."
So she knows the issue. She'd have to know that. She knows people care intensely about this. But she purports not to know whether the website discloses this information? Why didn't she attend to the responsibility to enable people to avoid policies that cover abortion? NPR reminds that that it was "part of the deal that got the law passed."

Let's remember that the law just barely passed. Go back in time and replace the assurance about this one point with the truth about what would happen, and would the law have passed? Continue this thought experiment, replace each point of encouragement — e.g., the $2,500 savings, the promise that you can keep what you have — with what we now understand to be true. This law only passed because of a profound violation of democratic principles. At this point, I'd say that the congressional Democrats and the President have a moral obligation to reopen the legislative process.

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