As the new republican G.O.P healthcare bills advance with a narrow vote of 19-17, it is apparent that there is still work to do. One of the many screws loose are the ones targeting women. It seems that with the new healthcare bill, the nation is stepping back a couple hundred years and women are losing their rights to their bodies.
Under Obamacare, it was certain that no federal funds would go towards abortions but it was covered by the insurers and got tax credit for it. With the new bill, it removes the ability to get tax credit off abortions. The only exception is when a pregnancy falls within the terms of the Hyde Amendment. For those of you don’t know what that is – it is an amendment which prohibits federal subsidies from being spent on abortions, except in cases where the pregnancy is a result of rape, incest, or a threat to the mother’s life.
The new G.O.P bill removes all tax credits from abortions that do not comply with the Hyde Amendment which leads most women to not get insurance covering abortions because of the lack of incentives. With this part of the G.O.P Bill – planned parenthood also falls into the mix. The bill wants to cut down funding to Planned Parenthood. Now is the time to kill a myth – out of all the services planned parenthood completes, only 3.4 percent accounts for abortions.
Under Obamacare, federal funds could be spent at Planned Parenthood but not for abortions and Medicaid recipients were able to receive care from Planned Parenthood and have Medicaid reimburse them. But sadly, with the new bill, Medicaid recipients are not allowed to seek help from Planned Parenthood. I can already see the angry mob gathering together outside of Planned Parenthoods around the nation.
Without this, many poorer Americans will not be able to receive even the most basics of healthcare. Before Obamacare – women would be charged more health insurance but with Obamacare, gender rating was a thing of the past. It seems with this new bill; we could return to the same bias rating based on gender we as a nation worked so hard to lessen.
Things that are currently unclear within the new G.O.P Healthcare bill are access to contraceptive and maternity care. Under Obamacare contraception was covered in a policy and so was maternity care. When asked about these sectors of the new bill, Tom Price, Health and Human Services Secretary could not give a sure answer.
With all the uncertainty being faced with the Trump presidency, I don’t think we need to add women’s health to the list of problems. One thing is for sure, we as a nation have a long way to go before we can have some peace and mind.
