In an opinion piece in this week’s Newsweek, an economist confronts the latest controversy in the reform debate: the coverage of abortion services for women who accept government subsidies as part of reform. The Stupak provision set in to motion rather heated arguments over just how far taxpayer dollars should go in paying for such services in the wake of reform.

Although the Senate voted to reject one senator’s proposal (essentially the same as Stupak’s House version), the move didn’t come without compromises. Al Lewis writes in the Newsweek op-ed that this problem would be countered be creating two different insurance pools — one covering abortion services and one which doesn’t .

[o]ne of the many frustrating things about the debate over federal insurance funds going to abortion is that the funds in question are so small: abortion spending represents less than one-tenth of 1% of total health care spending. [..]

[c]overing abortion does not raise overall insurance premiums — in a sense, it pays for itself by preventing the higher medical costs involved with birth events down the line [...] Most health plans and self-insured employers [...] cover abortions because their job is not to enforce a moral code of conduct but rather to pay claims as cost-effectively as possible.

It sounds ridiculously simple. Maybe too simple for its own good. If it is more prudent to discuss this on terms of Insurance reform (policy changes that save them money) as opposed to moral opprobrium (the association of third parties who pay for such services), this would be a no-brainer. But, alas, for those lawmakers beholden to anti-abortion funders, it’s back to square one and a compromised reform bill. | LINK

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