Legal Commentary

According to the Congressional Budget Office, a provision expanding eligibility to all Americans with a family income below 133% of the federal poverty level will allow 16 million more Americans to join Medicaid by 2019 than would otherwise be the case. All Medicaid recipients receive the program’s guarantee of family planning services without cost sharing, along with coverage for its comprehensive package of reproductive health services beyond family planning. (The major exception, of course, is abortion; however, this provision effectively would expand abortion coverage in the 17 states that fund abortions for their Medicaid recipients with state dollars.) The legislation, moreover, goes one step further: It allows states to expand Medicaid coverage solely for family planning services to the same income eligibility levels they use for pregnancy-related care, typically around 200% of poverty.

(Emphasis supplied.) I argued for a different solution to the Stupak Problem (junk the exchanges, expand Medicaid and Medicare instead) without even realizing that the my solution actually would have done the most to forward the interests of womens' reproductive health care. that it would have expanded public insurance programs beyond ObamaCare would have also been a benefit.

Progressives should have tried to find a way to work with Stupak to forward progressive goals. In hindsight, I think this may have been the biggest missed opportunity on health care for progressives.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 30, 2010 (boomark / email).