Health Care Reform Progresses...for now.

This Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee became the final Congressional panel to approve a bill that will reform our nation’s health care. One lone Republican, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, joined the majority in passing the $829 billion measure with a 14-9 vote.

This bill, which omits a public option, would “finance the biggest expansion of Medicaid in 40years and provide federal subsidies to 18 million people who otherwise couldn't afford coverage. It would raise taxes on high-cost plans, impose penalties on big employers that don't offer insurance, and slash spending on Medicare, the federal insurance plan for people older than 65.”

We scored a major pro-choice victory with this bill: the Committee narrowly rejected an anti-choice amendment to ban abortion coverage in the bill.

But we also suffered a major set-back: after all our work to get the Bush Administration’s failed abstinence-only programs de-funded, the Senate Finance Committee passed an amendment restoring funding for this program. Visit www.advocatesforyouth.org to take action on stopping funding for these destructive programs.