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Apparently, employees of the RNC had access to health insurance that would cover elective abortions. According to the AP report, the insurance has been available for 18 years. I am not sure why RNC leadership is just now noticing that their employees' health care premiums are paying for abortion. I think it does illustrate the fundamental flaw in the GOP's arguments against health care reform and why in my opinion they have marginal credibility.

So many of the things they warn against, are already business as usual in the corporate health insurance world. If anything, denial of care (death panels) and abortion coverage would be reduced under a government plan.

I think the abortion angle of the health care debate is a classic case of style over substance. No matter how you slice it, no matter how you feel about abortion, money out of your pocket will pay for abortion services. If it is not from tax dollars, it will be from insurance premium dollars. Even though the GOP is dropping the abortion option, nothing prevents their insurer Cigna from using those premiums to fund abortion services.

Philosophically, I can respect the opinion of someone who does not want their tax dollars paying for anything they personally find objectionable. I would only say, extend that option to all taxpayers. I will happily agree that your tax dollars will never be spent on any program that you object to, as long as I also have the same option to withhold my tax dollars from any government enterprise I happen to objec to. Let's make the entire tax code an opt-in or opt-out affair. Every taxpayer gets to choose what federal, state, and local programs they will fund. Think of all the new jobs created at the post office and freight companies delivering those 10 pound 2,000 page tax forms.

But back to the topic at hand. The RNC will no longer provide employee health insurance that includes abortion coverage. In the latest of an unending series of ironies in the health care debate, the Republican party has been partially vindicated.

They were a champion for those who did not want to have their existing coverage taken away. Republicans were correct that the effort to reform health care would lead to people losing coverage. What we did not know was that the only people who would lose existing coverage would be employees of the Republican National Committee.

And it only took them 18 years to figure this out... Wonder what they put in that tea they've been drinking.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_REPUBLICANS_ABORTION_INSURANCE?SITE=CALAK&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

"Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose," Steele said in a statement late Thursday after learning of the abortion coverage from a news report. "I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."

Steele instructed staff to inform the insurance carrier that the RNC wanted to opt out of elective abortion coverage, RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said. She said the policy has been in effect since 1991