Fox News Watchdog

In a November 24 Wall Street Journal column, News Corp. vice president William McGurn wrote of the Senate health care reform bill: “Conservatives and Republicans rattle off any number of objections to the bill: It would bust the budget; it would force many families to replace private coverage with government; it would subsidize abortion; it would ration care, etc. These are all variations on the major argument: It’s not going to work.”

From McGurn’s November 24 Wall Street Journal column:

Conservatives and
Republicans rattle off any number of objections to the bill: It would bust the
budget; it would force many families to replace private coverage with
government; it would subsidize abortion; it would ration care, etc. These are
all variations on the major argument: It’s not going to
work.

None of this really persuades
Democrats, because they see it differently. For Democrats, getting a big
health-care bill to Barack Obama’s desk is akin to FDR’s signing the Social
Security Act.

Never mind if it costs too much or
has some bad consequences. Ask yourself this: Whether it’s Social Security or
public education, when have Democrats ever cared whether government programs are
meeting their goals? The important thing is that massive health-care spending
shows they care.

Fact: Senate bill would not “force”
anyone “to replace private coverage with
government”

As the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) noted in its November 18 cost estimate of the
Senate bill, “[t]he options available in the insurance exchanges would include
private health insurance plans and could also include a public plan that would
be administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Service (HHS).” The bill specifies
that there is “no requirement for individuals to join” the public option and
states “may elect to prohibit Exchanges in such State from offering a community
health insurance option if such State enacts a law to provide for such
prohibition.” CBO estimates
that “total enrollment” in the public plan “would be 3 million to 4 million,”
assuming that “about two-thirds of the population” live in a state that does not
prohibit the inclusion of a public insurance plan in its exchange.

Fact: Senate bill yields deficit
reductions according to CBO

CBO stated in a
November 18 cost
estimate of the Senate bill that “enacting the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $130
billion over the 2010-2019 period.” CBO further stated that the bill will
continue to reduce the deficit beyond the 10-year budget window that ends in
2019 by “around one-quarter percent of GDP,” and that “in view of the projected
net savings during the decade following the 10-year budget window, CBO
anticipates that the legislation would probably continue to reduce budget
deficits relative to those under current law in subsequent decades, assuming
that all of its provisions would continue to be fully
implemented.”

Fact: Senate bill explicitly
prohibits federal funding of abortions not covered under Hyde
amendment

As
Media Matters for
America has documented, the Senate version of the health care bill
requires the HHS secretary to ensure the public option uses “no Federal funds”
in providing abortion coverage beyond the Hyde amendment. Section 1303(a)(1)(C)
of the Senate bill, titled “Prohibition on federal funds for abortion services
in community health insurance option” explains that the Health and Human
Services secretary must ensure that “no Federal funds are used for such
coverage” as outlined in Section 1303(a)(1)(B)(i). That section is defined as
“Abortion for which public funding is prohibited.” The bill also states that if
a “qualified health plan” offered under the Exchange provides coverage of
abortion services for which public funding is banned, “the issuer of the plan
shall not use any amount attributable” to the subsidies created under the bill
“for purposes of paying for such services” and must segregate funds for that
purpose. Morever, in 17
states, Medicaid, a federally subsidized health care program, covers abortions in
circumstances in which federal money is prohibited from being spent on abortion
by segregating federal funds.

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