Nelson has been the hardest nut to crack and is the most conservative Democrat in the Senate.
Although Lieberman has been getting the biggest lumps lately, he is actually the one who is masking just how conservative the Senate is on issues. He is covering up for Nelson, Conrad, Landrieu, Pryor, Lincoln, etc.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...
It looks like the Senate has 60 votes for cloture!
But the Senate is actually more liberal when it comes to abortion and thus REJECTED the Stupak amendment.
All this ragging on the Senate bill one forgets that there was plenty of ragging on the House bill when it came to the Stupak amendment. Women's rights groups was up on arms.
Well Nelson has agreed to the Senate compromise on abortion.
Here it is:
''SEC. 1303. SPECIAL RULES. 7 ''(a) STATEOPT-OUTOFABORTIONCOVERAGE.-- 8 ''(1) INGENERAL.--A State may elect to pro- 9 hibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans of- 10 fered through an Exchange in such State if such 11 State enacts a law to provide for such prohibition. 12 ''(2) TERMINATIONOFOPTOUT.--A State may 13 repeal a law described in paragraph (1) and provide 14 for the offering of such services through the Ex- 15 change. 16 ''(b) SPECIALRULES RELATINGTOCOVERAGEOF 17 ABORTIONSERVICES.-- 18 ''(1) VOLUNTARY CHOICE OF COVERAGE OF 19 ABORTIONSERVICES.-- 20 ''(A) INGENERAL.--Notwithstanding any 21 other provision of this title (or any amendment 22 made by this title)-- 23 ''(i) nothing in this title (or any 24 amendment made by this title), shall be 25
construed to require a qualified health plan
1
to provide coverage of services described in
2
subparagraph (B)(i) or (B)(ii) as part of
3
its essential health benefits for any plan
4
year; and
5
''(ii) subject to subsection (a), the
6
issuer of a qualified health plan shall de-
7
termine whether or not the plan provides
8
coverage of services described in subpara-
9
graph (B)(i) or (B)(ii) as part of such ben-
10
efits for the plan year.
11 ''(B) ABORTIONSERVICES.-- 12 ''(i) ABORTIONS FOR WHICHPUBLIC 13 FUNDING IS PROHIBITED.--The services 14 described in this clause are abortions for 15 which the expenditure of Federal funds ap- 16 propriated for the Department of Health 17 and Human Services is not permitted, 18 based on the law as in effect as of the date 19 that is 6 months before the beginning of 20 the plan year involved. 21 ''(ii) ABORTIONS FORWHICHPUBLIC 22 FUNDINGIS ALLOWED.--The services de- 23 scribed in this clause are abortions for 24 which the expenditure of Federal funds ap- 25 40 BAI09R08 S.L.C. propriated for the Department of Health 1 and Human Services is permitted, based 2 on the law as in effect as of the date that 3 is 6 months before the beginning of the 4 plan year involved. 5 ''(2) PROHIBITIONONTHEUSEOFFEDERAL 6 FUNDS.-- 7 ''(A) INGENERAL.--If a qualified health 8 plan provides coverage of services described in 9 paragraph (1)(B)(i), the issuer of the plan shall 10 not use any amount attributable to any of the 11 following for purposes of paying for such serv- 12 ices: 13 ''(i) The credit under section 36B of 14 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (and 15 the amount (if any) of the advance pay- 16 ment of the credit under section 1412 of 17 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care 18 Act). 19 ''(ii) Any cost-sharing reduction under 20 section 1402 of thePatient Protection and 21 Affordable Care Act (and the amount (if 22 any) of the advance payment of the reduc- 23 tion under section 1412 of the Patient 24 Protection and Affordable Care Act). 25 41 BAI09R08 S.L.C. ''(B) ESTABLISHMENTOFALLOCATIONAC- 1 COUNTS.--In the case of a plan to which sub- 2 paragraph (A) applies, the issuer of the plan 3 shall-- 4 ''(i) collect from each enrollee in the 5 plan (without regard to the enrollee's age, 6 sex, or family status) a separate payment 7 for each of the following: 8 ''(I) an amount equal to the por- 9 tion of the premium to be paid di- 10 rectly by the enrollee for coverage 11 under the plan of services other than 12 services described in paragraph 13 (1)(B)(i) (after reduction for credits 14 and cost-sharing reductions described 15 in subparagraph (A)); and 16 ''(II) an amount equal to the ac- 17 tuarial value of the coverage of serv- 18 ices described in paragraph (1)(B)(i), 19 and 20 ''(ii) shall deposit all such separate 21 payments into separate allocation accounts 22 as provided in subparagraph (C). 23 In the case of an enrollee whose premium for 24 coverage under the plan is paid through em- 25 42 BAI09R08 S.L.C. ployee payroll deposit, the separate payments 1 required under this subparagraph shall each be 2 paid by a separate deposit. 3 ''(C) SEGREGATIONOFFUNDS.-- 4 ''(i) IN GENERAL.--The issuer of a 5 plan to which subparagraph (A) applies 6 shall establish allocation accounts de- 7 scribed in clause (ii) for enrollees receiving 8 amounts described in subparagraph (A). 9 ''(ii) ALLOCATION ACCOUNTS.--The 10 issuer of a plan to which subparagraph (A) 11 applies shall deposit-- 12 ''(I) all payments described in 13 subparagraph (B)(i)(I) into a separate 14 account that consists solely of such 15 payments and that is used exclusively 16 to pay for services other than services 17 described in paragraph (1)(B)(i); and 18 ''(II) all payments described in 19 subparagraph (B)(i)(II) into a sepa- 20 rate account that consists solely of 21 such payments and that is used exclu- 22 sively to pay for services described in 23 paragraph (1)(B)(i). 24 ''(D) ACTUARIALVALUE.-- 25 43 BAI09R08 S.L.C. ''(i) IN GENERAL.--The issuer of a 1 qualified health plan shall estimate the 2 basic per enrollee, per month cost, deter- 3 mined on an average actuarial basis, for 4 including coverage under the qualified 5 health plan of the services described in 6 paragraph (1)(B)(i). 7 ''(ii) CONSIDERATIONS.--In making 8 such estimate, the issuer-- 9 ''(I) may take into account the 10 impact on overall costs of the inclu- 11 sion of such coverage, but may not 12 take into account any cost reduction 13 estimated to result from such services, 14 including prenatal care, delivery, or 15 postnatal care; 16 ''(II) shall estimate such costs as 17 if such coverage were included for the 18 entire population covered; and 19 ''(III) may not estimate such a 20 cost at less than $1 per enrollee, per 21 month. 22 ''(E) ENSURING COMPLIANCE WITHSEG- 23 REGATIONREQUIREMENTS.-- 24 44 BAI09R08 S.L.C. ''(i) INGENERAL.--Subject to clause 1 (ii), State health insurance commissioners 2 shall ensure that health plans comply with 3 the segregation requirements in this sub- 4 section through the segregation of plan 5 funds in accordance with applicable provi- 6 sions of generally accepted accounting re- 7 quirements, circulars on funds manage- 8 ment of the Office of Management and 9 Budget, and guidance on accounting of the 10 Government Accountability Office. 11 ''(ii) CLARIFICATION.--Nothing in 12 clause (i) shall prohibit the right of an in- 13 dividual or health plan to appeal such ac- 14 tion in courts of competent jurisdiction. ''(3) RULESRELATINGTONOTICE.-- 16 ''(A) NOTICE.--A qualified health plan 17 that provides for coverage of the services de- 18 scribed in paragraph (1)(B)(i) shall provide a 19 notice to enrollees, only as part of the summary 20 of benefits and coverage explanation, at the 21 time of enrollment, of such coverage. 22 ''(B) RULES RELATING TO PAYMENTS.-- 23 The notice described in subparagraph (A), any 24 advertising used by the issuer with respect to 25 45 BAI09R08 S.L.C. the plan, any information provided by the Ex- 1 change, and any other information specified by 2 the Secretary shall provide information only 3 with respect to the total amount of the com- 4 bined payments for services described in para- 5 graph (1)(B)(i) and other services covered by 6 the plan. 7 ''(4) NODISCRIMINATIONONBASISOFPROVI- 8 SIONOF ABORTION.--No qualified health plan of- 9 fered through an Exchange may discriminate against 10 any individual health care provider or health care fa- 11 cility because of its unwillingness to provide, pay for, 12 provide coverage of, or refer for abortions 13 ''(c) APPLICATIONOFSTATEANDFEDERALLAWS 14 REGARDINGABORTION.-- 15 ''(1) NOPREEMPTIONOFSTATELAWSREGARD- 16 INGABORTION.--Nothing in this Act shall be con- 17 strued to preempt or otherwise have any effect on 18 State laws regarding the prohibition of (or require- 19 ment of) coverage, funding, or procedural require- 20 ments on abortions, including parental notification 21 or consent for the performance of an abortion on a 22 minor. 23 ''(2) NOEFFECTONFEDERALLAWS REGARD- 24 INGABORTION.-- 25 46 BAI09R08 S.L.C. ''(A) INGENERAL.--Nothing in this Act 1 shall be construed to have any effect on Federal 2 laws regarding-- 3 ''(i) conscience protection; 4 ''(ii) willingness or refusal to provide 5 abortion; and 6 ''(iii) discrimination on the basis of 7 the willingness or refusal to provide, pay 8 for, cover, or refer for abortion or to pro- 9 vide or participate in training to provide 10 abortion. 11 ''(3) NO EFFECT ONFEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS 12 LAW.--Nothing in this subsection shall alter the 13 rights and obligations of employees and employers 14 under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.