Author of the highly debated Stupak/Pitt amendment, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., rejected the findings of a Nov. 16 report by five professors and researchers from the School of Public Health and Health Services which said the amendment would eliminate insurance coverage for medically indicated abortions in the long run.
Stupak told Talking Points Memo D.C. that the report is based on speculation and the amendment would not limit private health insurance companies from offering medically indicated abortions.
“The idea that insurers will stop providing abortion services because of the Stupak-Ellsworth-Pitts amendment is nothing more than speculation,” Stupak said in a statement to TPMDC. “There is no language in this amendment that in any way prohibits private health insurance companies from offering these services.”
The report written by Chair of the Department of Health Policy Sara Rosenbaum, research professors Lara Cartwright-Smith and Ross Margulies, professor Susan Wood and lead researcher D. Richard Mauery said if the amendment passes, there will be an “industry-wide effect.”
“The treatment exclusions required under the Stupak/Pitts Amendment will have an industry-wide effect, eliminating coverage of medically indicated abortions over time for all women, not only those whose coverage is derived through a health insurance exchange.
Stupak’s remarks came only days after U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Vice Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, referenced the GW study in her blog.
Saturday night Democrats in the Senate won a key victory in the health care fight when the Senate voted 60-39 to move ahead with floor debate on the sweeping $848 billion bill.
