New York Times Editorials React To Reproductive Health-Related Issues In Health Reform Law

The New York Times recently published two editorials pertaining to the federal health reform law (PL 111-148).

~ Abortion: "In the fierce debate over health care reform, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops charged that the legislation didn't do enough to restrict insurance coverage of abortions," while several "Catholic nuns and the Catholic Health Association of the United States, which represents hundreds of Catholic hospitals, looked at the same bill and concluded that it would have no effect on abortion financing," the Times writes. Bishop Lawrence Brandt of Greensburg, Pa., is now "punishing" nuns who signed a letter in support of the reform bill, the editorials states, adding that Brandt "has decreed that 'any religious community' that signed the letter would be forbidden to use the diocese's offices, parishes or newspaper to promote programs that encourage young people to consider the religious life." Brandt alleges that the nuns took "a public stance in opposition to the church's teaching on human life," according to the editorial. The nuns "saw the bill as a powerfully positive step, because it provided health insurance to millions of people without it, and hundreds of millions of dollars for the care of pregnant women," the editorial states. It concludes that the nuns who signed the letter "showed courage and compassion when they spoke out for reform. It makes no sense at all to try to punish them or thwart their efforts to find new sisters who would care for the sick and dying and lead exemplary Catholic lives" (New York Times, 5/1).

~ Rescissions: "Americans are already starting to see benefits of health care reform," a Times editorial states. Although the "new law requires health insurance companies -- starting in September -- to end their most indefensible practice: rescinding coverage after a policyholder gets sick," several insurers and their trade associations in recent days "have rushed to announce that they will end rescissions immediately," according to the editorial. Those announcements follow the release of an "investigative report by Reuters" that found that WellPoint, one of the nation's largest insurers, targeted women with breast cancer "for fraud investigations that could lead to rescissions," the editorial states. "WellPoint fiercely denied singling out breast cancer patients for scrutiny" but "acknowledged using computer algorithms to search for a range of conditions that applicants would likely have known about at the time they applied," according to the Times. This is "very good news for the thousands of people who each year pay their premiums but lose their coverage just when they are likely to run up big medical bills," the Times writes (New York Times, 5/3).


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