Senator Kyl: “I don’t need maternity care,” so why should insurers have to cover it?
Written by Judy Waxman, Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights, National Women's Law Center
Last I heard, getting pregnant takes two.
This morning, in the Senate Finance Committee’s mark-up of the America’s Healthy Future Act, Senator Kyl (R-AZ) introduced an amendment to strip the bill of any requirements that health insurance contain the benefits that people need.
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), ever the champion of women’s rights, observed that over 60% of health insurance plans in the individual insurance market don’t provide any coverage for maternity care. We can’t allow insurance companies to get away with excluding this basic care, she argued, and now is the time to change the system for better.
That’s not Senator Kyl’s problem, though, as he was happy to explain: “First of all, I don’t need maternity care and so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don’t need and will make the policy more expensive.”
“I think your mom probably did,” Sen. Stabenow retorted.
The amendment failed, 14-9. Wonder what the Senator’s wife and daughter would have to say about his logic.
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