Blunt Amendment: GOP Wants to Deny Women ANY Preventive Health Services

GOP War on Women Goes Nookyular

Yesterday, President Obama handed the Republicans their asses — again:

After two solid weeks of Republicans rapidly escalating attacks on contraception access under the banner of “religous freedom,” Obama finally announced what the White House is proposing an accomodation of religiously affiliated employers who don’t want to offer birth control coverage as part of their insurance plans. In those situations, the insurance companies will have to reach out directly to employees and offer contraception coverage for free, without going through the employer.

Instead of re-evaluating its attempt to turn contraception into a wedge issue — after all, Fox News (yes that Fox News) published a poll that found 61% of Americans approve of “requiring employer health plans to cover birth control for women.” – the GOP, led by Missouri Senator Roy Blunt (R-Crazytown) has decided to double-down on the War on Women.

Blunt has introduced an amendment to the PPACA which would allow employers to deny any preventive health services (including breast cancer screening, depression screening, and diabetes screening), under the guise of religious freedom and respecting the right of conscience of insurers, plan sponsors and healthcare providers, among others.  Apparently, that’s the new meme:  Insurance companies are now having their religious freedom infringed. Somebody save them! (I wrote about that nonsense yesterday.)

From Think Progress: 

Despite Obama’s decision to shield nonprofit religious institutions from offering birth control benefits, next week Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is expected to offer an amendment that would permit any employer or insurance plan to exclude any health service, no matter how essential, from coverage if they morally object to it:

(6) RESPECTING RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE WITH REGARD TO SPECIFIC ITEMS OR SERVICES —

“(A) FOR HEALTH PLANS. — A health plan shall not be considered to have failed to provide the essential health benefits package described in subsection (a) (or preventive health services described in section 2713 of the Public Health Services Act), to fail to be a qualified health plan, or to fail to fulfill any other requirement under this title on the basis that it declines to provide coverage of specific items or services because —

“(i) providing coverage (or, in the case of a sponsor of a group health plan, paying for coverage) of such specific items or services is contrary to the religious beliefs or moral convictions of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering the plan; or

“(ii) such coverage (in the case of individual coverage) is contrary to the religious beliefs or moral convictions of the purchaser or beneficiary of the coverage.

Under the measure, an insurer or an employer would be able to claim a moral or religious objection to covering HIV/AIDS screenings, Type 2 Diabetes treatments, cancer tests or anything else they deem inappropriate or the result of an “unhealthy” or “immoral” lifestyle. Similarly, a health plan could refuse to cover mental health care on the grounds that the plan believes that psychiatric problems should be treated with prayer.

The amendment would also permit individual purchasers of insurance to opt-out of coverage if their tiny mental Jesus tells them to, thus undermining the point of insurance which is to pool risk.

I poked around the intertrons to find what sorts of treament fall under the rubric of preventive health services and found a list:

• Abdominal aortic aneurysm screening: men
• Alcohol misuse counseling
• Anemia screening: pregnant women
• Aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease: men
• Aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease: women
• Bacteriuria screening: pregnant women
• Blood pressure screening in adults
• BRCA screening, counseling about
• Breast cancer preventive medication
• Breast cancer screening
• Breastfeeding counseling
• Cervical cancer screening
• Chlamydial infection screening: non-pregnant women
• Chlamydial infection screening: pregnant women
• Cholesterol abnormalities screening: men 35 and older
• Cholesterol abnormalities screening: men younger than 35
• Cholesterol abnormalities screening: women 45 and older
• Cholesterol abnormalities screening: women younger than 45
• Colorectal cancer screening
• Dental caries chemoprevention: preschool children
• Depression screening: adolescents
• Depression screening: adults
• Diabetes screening
• Folic acid supplementation
• Gonorrhea prophylactic medication: newborns
• Gonorrhea screening: women
• Healthy diet counseling
• Hearing loss screening: newborns
• Hemoglobinopathies screening: newborns
• Hepatitis B screening: pregnant women
• HIV screening
• Hypothyrodism screening: newborns
• Iron supplementation in children
• Obesity screening and counseling: adults
• Obesity screening and counseling: children
• Osteoporosis screening: women
• PKU screening: newborns
• Rh incompatibility screening: first pregnancy visit
• Rh incompatibility screening: 24-28 weeks gestation
• STIs counseling
• Tobacco use counseling and interventions: non-pregnant adults
• Tobacco use counseling: pregnant women
• Syphilis screening: non-pregnant persons
• Syphilis screening: pregnant women
• Visual acuity screening in children

As you can see, much of the preventive health care services affect women exclusively. Any of these preventive services could be denied for whatever cockamamie religious reason can be contrived.

It would be easier of the Republicans just drowned every third woman in a lake.

***Read the full amendment here. You can read more about preventive health services here.

[via Think Progress]