Pelosi was unable to get the bill through without making a major concession to anti-abortionists (allowing a vote on the suggestively named Stupak amendment). The amendment prohibits people who receive insurance subsidies from purchasing private plans that cover abortion - which means many will have their access to abortion services removed. This will sour yesterday's achievement for many Democrats across the country.
The excellent Amy Sullivan thinks the concession should have been avoidable and was the result of the Dems overplaying their hand near the beginning of the process, and then failing to take the anti-abortionist faction in their own party seriously until the last minute:
Perhaps the best way to have headed off this debate in the first place would have been to make sure that the original health reform legislation was not introduced with language that could have allowed direct federal funding of abortion. That starting point signaled to pro-life Democrats--rightly or wrongly--that their colleagues hoped to use health reform to change the status quo regarding government funding of abortion. And the fact that their concerns went unacknowledged for months from both the White House and House leadership seemed to confirm their fears.
Still, who knows what will happen when if and when the bill gets to conference (the process of negotiation by which the Senate and House versions of a bill are merged).
Pundits are fond of shouldda wouldda couldda.
"...This tells you something about how hard healthcare reform is to pass the system and why successive administrations have failed to get it through. It also tells you how successful the GOP has been at sticking together in opposition to Obama -..."
I wish they'd been able to enact single payer. But for the Republicans it's do or die. Still Democrats have overcome every step of the way so far. IMO, you and Sullivan give too little credit where credit is due.
Posted by: 45387 | November 08, 2009 at 03:40 PM