Congressman Mark Meadows (R-N. C.) is best known as one of the ringleaders of the gang of Republican congressmen who were so determined to defund Obamacare that they were willing to hold the entire federal government hostage to do it. In August 2013, eight months after taking office as the congressman from western North Carolina–after the Republican-dominated state legislature drew Heath Shuler’s district out from under him–he authored a letter to House Speaker John Boehner calling for Obamacare to be defunded as a condition of keeping the government open. That letter ultimately set off the chain of events that led Boehner to embrace the idea that Obamacare should be zeroed out in any continuing resolution to fund the government. Meadows appeared on CNN just after the government ran out of money in October 2013, and crassly declared that he was only concerned about representing “the people back home” in his nicely gerrymandered, R+12 district–and the national implications be hanged.
On Wednesday, Meadows gave another example of just how crass he is. That day, the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs held a hearing on Obamacare’s impact on the health insurance market. As you might expect, the hearing was a fishing expedition–as evidenced by its title, “Poised to Profit: How Obamacare Helps Insurance Companies Even As It Fails Patients.” One of the witnesses was Dr. Mandy Cohen, the acting head of Medicare and Medicaid’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. She no doubt knew she was going to be in for some cringe-worthy questioning from the Republicans on the panel–but probably didn’t expect the kind of treatment she got from Meadows.
Meadows was apparently not happy that the health plan he bought with Obamacare includes coverage for maternity services–something that he said neither he nor his wife, Debbie, are going to need any time soon since they’re in their 50s. Never mind that maternity care is one of ten essential services that all new plans must include. Cohen tried patiently to explain to this, but Meadows was having none of it. Here’s a sample of the exchange:
Meadows: So you have to buy maternity, even though you may never have a child?
Cohen: That is correct.
Meadows: Are there other things you have to buy that you may never use?
Cohen: It depends on your personal family situation and your medical situation. I’ll say as an internist, and a primary care doc, that sometimes you don’t know what that medical situation will be going forward, and that’s the nature?
Meadows: But maternity is one that you can probably analyze pretty well for someone who’s in their 50s.
Cohen: Right, but it’s a minimal essential benefit we wanted to make sure that all Americans had access to.
Watch the whole second part of the hearing here. Meadows and Cohen began sparring at around the 9:00 mark. While it went on for only a minute, it must have felt much longer than that to Cohen.
Meadows was merely echoing a common criticism Republicans have hurled at the health care bill–that it forces people to pay for benefits they’ll probably never need. And yet, Meadows describes himself on his campaign site as “a Christian conservative businessman” who considers abortion a “tragedy.” So you’d think he’d be thrilled that women no longer have to beg, borrow, and steal to get the care they need to ensure those babies will be healthy. Oh no–he thinks that since not everyone has to use it, it shouldn’t be covered. I wonder if he’s willing to say that to the face of his daughter, Haley. Tom Harkin probably said it best–paying for maternity care is no different than paying property taxes to support our schools.
Before Obamacare, women frequently had to pay their OB/GYNs out of pocket. And they don’t come cheap. According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, out-of-pocket costs for maternity care can go as high as $15,000. Those costs are inflated largely due to hospital costs–according to that same study, 25 percent of all American hospital stays are directly related to pregnancy and childbirth. From the sound of it, we’d go back to that system if Meadows had his way. Looks like yet more evidence Meadows and his colleagues are waging a war on women.
Let us know your thoughts at the Liberal America Facebook page.
Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
edited by tw
