Health Care Reform Flow Chart
The article “Abortion Returns to the Health Care Debate” appears in the current issue of our Diocesan newspaper, Today’s Catholic. Its in the archives, in a 20 page PDF of the August 1, 2010 issue, so I have provided a separate direct link to it.
I have never believed that the executive order issued by President Obama at the end of the debate on health care reform was sufficient to ensure that my tax dollars are not going to be spent to provide elective abortions.
This article provides confirmation that my fears are well founded.
If you would like a little more info on the author, Richard Doerflinger, click through to Powerful Catholic Quietly Shaping Abortion, Health Bill Debate from Kaiser Health News.
By the way, if you click on the Flow Chart, you will be taken to the official House of Representatives website. When I first saw this picture, I thought it was a joke. But it is an actual chart prepared by Republican House staffers to help explain the bill. This article from Bloomberg gives the background plus some insight into some of the less than democratic provisions of the bill, such as this quote:
“Getting that massive enterprise up and running will be next to impossible. So Democrats streamlined the process by granting Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the authority to make judgments that can’t be challenged either administratively or through the courts.”
Wasn’t the bill supposed to streamline the system, and save money in the process?