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Roundup: Obama's Speech on Health Reform

By Jodi Jacobson, Senior Political Editor

September 10, 2009 - 3:16pm

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President's speech draws mixed reviews

After months of speaking only broadly--and vaguely--about his vision for health reform, President Barack Obama gave a speech last night to a joint session of Congress, stating that "the time for bickering is over," and urging rapid adoption of health care reform legislation.  The core elements of the President's vision, as noted by Lindsay Beyerstein in the Daily Pulse, include curbing the worst abuses of private insurance; requiring everyone to have insurance, and the creation of insurance exchanges.  

There were mixed reactions to the speech, and the specifics provided by the president.  The president "chose again to duck the loudest dispute: whether the new insurance exchange must contain a government-run "public option," said the Washington Post editorial on the speech.

Mr. Obama once again outlined the arguments for a public plan and once again said it was not essential. Perhaps the president's advisers made the right political calculation in determining that Wednesday night was not the time to embrace a particular alternative, such as nonprofit cooperatives or a trigger under which a plan would be created only if private insurers do not reduce premium costs to a certain level. But this laissez-faire strategy guarantees that the rather peripheral debate over the public option will continue to dominate the health-care discussion. 

The Post editorial also expressed skepticism regarding the President's plans for limiting  malpractice suits, and for the proposed "fiscal trigger."

Post columnist E.J. Dionne, however, wrote:

But for all of the details, the most striking aspect of the address may have been its call to battle: The days of taking incoming fire without any return volleys are over.

"I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it," he declared. "If you misrepresent what's in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now."

It seemed as if a politician who had been channeling the detached and cerebral Adlai Stevenson had discovered a new role model in the fighting Harry Truman. For the cause of health-care reform, it was about time.

Some advocates expressed disappointment in the speech.  The National Organization for Women statement on the speech said that:

"As activists, we ... acknowledge that the steps he outlined fall short of a guarantee of comprehensive health care for all, including the full range of reproductive health services required to ensure equality for women. We must assert our human rights as the debates continue."

NOW called for

  • Consumer protection against abuses by health insurers, particularly against so-called pre-existing conditions, which so often and outrageously have been applied to exclude pregnancy and maternal care.
  • Expanded availability of insurance coverage. Women are traditionally underserved by employer-based health insurance because we are disproportionately represented in part-time paying jobs, often because of the vital yet unpaid and under-acknowledged caregiving services we provide for our families and country. Even when we work full-time, we are more often segregated into "pink collar" minimum-wage and non-union jobs -- that is, jobs that don't offer health care benefits.
  • Reining in of health care costs. "Though we tend to be healthier than men, we often pay more for insurance premiums than men -- blatant sex discrimination -- a practice that must end immediately. In addition, we bear the brunt of skyrocketing drug costs, including birth control pills that are covered at the whims of profit-driven private health insurance companies."

 

Continued discussion of the President's speech and of Congressional action is sure to be a focus of the coming week.

Sexual advances by clergy toward congregants "pervasive," says study.

Sexual advances by married clergy toward their women congregants is a "prevalent problem," according to a survey by Baylor University's School of Social Work featured today in the Washington Post.  According to the survey, one in every 33 women who attend worship services regularly has been the target of sexual advances by a religious leader.

The study used a nationally representative sample of 3,559 respondents to estimate the prevalence of clergy sexual misconduct. Women older than 18 who attended worship services at least once a month were asked in the survey whether they had received "sexual advances or propositions" from a religious leader. 

According to the researchers who conducted the survey, the problem is so pervasive that it almost certainly involves a wide range of denominations, religious traditions and leaders.

"It certainly is prevalent, and clearly the problem is more than simply a few charismatic leaders preying on vulnerable followers," said Diana Garland, dean of Baylor's School of Social Work, who co-authored the study.

It found that more than two-thirds of the offenders were married to someone else at the time of the advance.

Carolyn Waterstradt, 42, a graduate student who lives in the Midwest quoted in the Post article said she was coerced into a sexual relationship with a married minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for 18 months. He had been her pastor for a decade, she said, and told her the relationship was ordained by God.

"I believed him because I was looking for direction and for help," said Waterstradt, who ended the relationship years ago and entered therapy. The pastor was removed from the clergy.

Waterstradt said she has suffered lasting psychological and spiritual consequences from the relationship, including depression and a deep distrust of organized religion. "It's very difficult for me to walk into a church."

A growing number of denominations are moving to do something about such problems, particularly since the Catholic Church's highly publicized sex scandal involving its clergy.  At least 36 denominations have policies that identify sexual relations between adult congregants and clergy as misconduct, subject to discipline.  The article discusses the policies created to combat the problem by the Rabbinical Assemby, an international association of Conservative rabbis; the United Church of Christ; and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. It further discusses state laws being passed to address the problem.

High rate of unsafe abortion costs women's lives in Namibia

Abortion remains a serious health problem in Namibia, reports the Namiibian paper Informante.  Over 7,000 women have been admitted  to hospitals over a three-year period with complications of unsafe abortion according to the Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr. Richard Kamwi.

Results from a 3-year study conducted from November 1995 to October 1998 --the only such study ever done in Namibia --revealed 107 maternal deaths in hospitals, 16 percent of which had occurred because of abortion related complications.

“Abortion-related deaths were also more common among young women. It was also found that about one third of the deaths were due to septic and illegally induced abortion most likely unsafely performed somewhere.”

This type of research urgently needs to be conducted more frequently.

Experts underscore that reproductive health services are largely still not accessible to many youth.

“Firstly, young people feel the services are not directed to them or either the RH services are not available at all to the youth,” stated Naimibian Planned Parenthood Association Country Director Sam Ntelamo.  Lack of access "could be among the contributing factors to the increase in the number of productive health unmet needs experienced by Namibia’s youth."

Ntelamo also pointed to concerns about baby dumping and infanticide. He however was quick to point out that without any relevant data it was impossible to estimate the true extent of unsafe abortion, infanticide and baby dumping; as some cases may go unreported.

Ntelamo said between 2003 and 2007 police recorded 74 cases of concealment of birth with these figures suggesting that infanticide and baby dumping are on the increase.
“In the absence of reliable data, we call on those that are financially able to assist to conduct a study on unsafe abortion and baby dumping-of which we believe that the results will provide implementers, scholars and policy makers with empirical evidence on the severity of this problem.”

OTHER NEWS:

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SEPTEMBER 10

 


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Beside the Obamacare which

Beside the Obamacare which really boosted the critics to booed the President, again, Obama school speech stirred up a lot of controversy among conservatives, especially the type that love to scream at the top of their lungs over nothing. That's more or less what is controversial about the Obama school speech – nothing. It's largely supposed to be inspirational, and encourage children to stick with education and not to give up or drop out if the going gets tough. Shocking, we know – children getting educations – we might start having more people acting all smart and stuff. The speech had no socialist or fascist overtones, and people that were protesting the Obama school speech might want to find a money lender to go do something, or maybe a hobby.

Submitted by LisaM on September 10, 2009 - 7:57pm.
RE: Status of Conscience

RE: Status of Conscience Protection in the Pending Health Care Reform Bills

I would like to know why the precious consciences of Americans United for Life are limited to bullying women who need an abortion or birth control. Why not speak out against a monster like Antonin Scalia who says things like, “Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached” Why not speak out against the men and women who work for insurance companies and whose job it is to deny people necessary medical care and/or deny them coverage on the most flimsy of excuses? I think we're all aware by now that the business models and practices of health insurance companies and HMO's require that they kill a certain percentage of their customers by refusing them care or by delaying necessary care. I think we're all aware that the that the men and women who do the work of insurance companies are culpable in these deaths. Why is it that Americans United for Life limits it's 'conscience' to the invented concerns of an invented class of humans (the so-called 'pre-born') and pits itself against the concerns of terminally ill men and women seeking dignified deaths?

The only difference between the American anti-abortion movement and the Taliban is about 8,000 miles.

Dr Warren Hern, MD

Submitted by colleen on September 10, 2009 - 8:55pm.