Liberals are upset that Democrats gave in and supported a vote on
an amendment to prohibit federal funds from being used to
subsidize abortions.
"They totally caved because they couldn’t find the votes for
their bill. Now they’ll try to jam it down the throats of
pro-choice Dems," writes
David Dayen on Fire Dog Lake, who describes the measure as a
"ban abortion coverage in the private individual and small group
market by passing the bill tomorrow."
The Washington Post's Ezra Klein
laments that, "Because of the limits placed on the exchanges,
most of the participants will have some form of premium credit or
affordable subsidy. That means most will be ineligible for
abortion coverage."
The New Republic's Jon Cohn, meanwhile,
writes that the measure would make it "more likely that
millions of American women will no longer be able to purchase
insurance that covers abortion services"
But there should be a very important lesson in this. If you don't
want government to be involved with dictating what kind of
insurance people can purchase with their own money, then don't
support a health care bill that forces individuals to purchase
government-designed insurance policies from a government-run
store.