There is major dispute going on now in the House over the health care legislation passed in the Senate. Democrats and White House officials are working to get the votes needed to pass this piece of legislation. Abortion has become a huge issue in the legislation since the Republicans are against the federal government paying for abortions through health care while lawmakers and Democrats are for it and wish to include it. Interest groups such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Health Association are becoming involved and going head to head over this problem as well. Democratic officials are attempting to find a compromise by suggesting that an executive order "would prohibit the use of taxpayer money for abortions." Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi does not want the focus of the legislation to be just on abortion.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this health care legislation will cost about $940 billion over ten years. To offset this price tag, government spending will be reduced in programs such as Medicare.
The debate over this legislation has been revolved unpreferably around abortion. One of the statements in the House bill was that no federal money can be used to pay for an abortion. The Senate bill federal money could not be used for the abortion procedure but health plans are allowed to cover abortion. What else is there to cover if the procedure is being taken care of by health plans?
-Jackie Paluszek
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/health/policy/21health.html
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