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Joe Hoeffel, Candidate for Governor, Supports Health Care Reform; Opposes Stupak Amendment

By JOE HOEFFEL 2010

PA Gubernatorial candidate, Joe Hoeffel, supports health care reform with a robust public option.  Hoeffel is also staunchly pro-choice and trusts women to make good decisions.

“ I wholeheartedly support health care reform that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all,” said Hoeffel.  “ But Health care reform with the addition of the Stupack-Pitts amendment that passed the House punishes women – particularly low and middle-income women.”

“I call on Senators Specter and Casey to pass much needed health care reform without the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.  Our PA Senators must support a compromise,” said Hoeffel.  “If there is no compromise and this amendment becomes law, this restriction represents a significant step BACK for the status of women in our society.”

In Stupak-Pitts, an amendment in health care reform legislation that has just passed the House, private insurers who participate in the new exchange created by the health care bill would be banned from covering abortion — a legal medical procedure — as a part of women’s reproductive health care. What’s more, the legislation prevents women from buying insurance that covers abortions — even if they use their own money.

“ I believe,” said Hoeffel, “ that decisions about abortion – a legal health care procedure – should be made by a woman and her doctor. The government should not be involved.  As Governor, I will speak up about the negative effects of important federal legislation on the commonwealth,  and I’m saying now that health care reform with the Stupak amendment is a bad deal for Pennsylvania women.”

Background

The Stupak – Pitts amendment in HR 3962 reaches much further than the Hyde Amendment, which has banned the use of federal dollars to pay for almost all abortions in a number of government programs since 1977.  Joe Hoeffel has opposed the Hyde amendment since its inception.

The majority of private health insurance plans currently offer abortion coverage; The Stupak – Pitts amendment would  eliminate private abortion coverage in the ‘exchange,’ the new insurance market created under health care reform, as well as in the public option, if one is created.

Stupak – Pitts allows women to purchase a separate, single service rider to cover abortion, but abortion riders don’t exist because women don’t plan on having unintended pregnancies or medically complicated pregnancies that require ending the pregnancy.  These “abortion riders” are discriminatory and illogical and tantamount to banning abortion coverage since no insurance company would offer such a policy.

To learn more about Joe Hoeffel’s positions on the issues and candidacy for governor go to his website.

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November 12, 2009 at 9:31 am

--pa2010.com Staff

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