Sen. Kyl, Family Research Council: Flip-Floppers on Families

We all know that Republicans are pro-family, right? After all, whenever there are cameras on they're more than willing to beat their breasts and wail loudly to anyone who will listen over the modern decline of 'the family', especially when they can blame progressives.

As Senator Kyl proved in today's markup session on the Baucus health care reform proposal, all their support for families evaporates rapidly when it bumps into influence, lobbying, and a little help from the extremists over at the Family Research Council.

From today's session, this tasty tidbit:

KYL: 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.

STABENOW: If I could just interject once with my colleague — I think your mom probably did. (LAUGHTER)

KYL: Over 60 years ago my mom did. (LAUGHTER) You notice I wasn’t too specific with regard to that.

I had to listen twice to what Sen. Kyl actually said. Here it is, so we're clear. He said that because he is a man and doesn't get pregnant, he doesn't need maternity care, so requiring that to be a basic benefit in a policy will drive up costs. Of course! Because we all know that women get pregnant all by themselves and can always rely on their men to pay the costs for prenatal and delivery costs. Right?

Let's have a look at Senator Kyl's record when it comes to families. The Family Research Council (FRC), James Dobson's political strongarm, gives Senator Kyl a score of 100% for "supporting the values of the American Family Association". I'm singling out the FRC specifically, because as recently as last week, Michigan BlueDog Democrat Bart Stupak was hailed at the Values Voter Summit for blocking health care reform under Bill Clinton, and for standing as an obstacle to it once again under President Obama.

Any way you look at this, it would appear that the ultra-right wing Christian lobby is applauding discrimination against the family, which is interesting, given that as recently as Monday and Tuesday of this week, Dobson's podcast concerned the topic of "Removing Excuses from the Bedroom".

Forgive the cognitive disconnect. Am I REALLY hearing MEN unanimously smacking down health care reform, and specifically health care reform that benefits women? The amazing arrogance is only eclipsed by the hypocrisy. ThinkProgress expands:

Maternity care, in fact, is a perfect example of why Kyl’s amendment is so bad. Most individual health insurance markets don’t cover maternity care. In fact, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 14 states have a requirement for such coverage, and the number of plans without maternity coverage continues to rise dramatically. Anthem Blue Cross — which has been actively fighting health care reform — considers pregnancy optional and therefore not necessary to insure:

“The point of insurance is to insure against catastrophic care costs. That’s what you’re trying to aggregate and pool for such things as heart attacks and cancer,” said an Anthem Blue Cross spokesman. “Having a child is a matter of choice. Dealing with an adult onset illness, such as diabetes, heart disease breast or prostate cancer, is not a matter of choice.”

“A well defined minimum benefits package would compel health insurers to provide basic services to all Americans,” adds Volsky. “The Kyl amendment, which ultimately failed, would have allowed the industry to continue profiting from discriminatory practices.”

Earlier this week I joined the BlogHer conference call with Senator Amy Klobuchar about health care reform. At the very beginning, she laid down her reasons for being so committed to true reform: When her daughter was born, she was very sick. Yet Senator Klobuchar was summarily released from the hospital within 24 hours of birth, despite the illness of her daughter, her daughter's need to bond with her mother despite her illness, and the danger to her own health.

This is what health care reform is all about and why it's so necessary. Right now, women are discriminated against all the way around. Maternity benefits not covered, pregnancy considered a pre-existing condition, alongside domestic violence as another. Birth control pills not covered by prescription benefits while Viagra is considered a formulary benefit.

In the eyes of the extremists like James Dobson and his machine as spoken through the whored right wing of our Senate, women should spread 'em when called upon by their men, accept pregnancy as a 'gift from god', and prepare to pay whatever costs there are associated with that.

In case I forgot to mention it, Senator Kyl and his campaign committee have received...wait for it...

$1,302,608

...in campaign contributions from 2005-2010 from health professionals, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, nursing homes and the insurance industry. Over 1.3 million births a lot of babies. And bad health care policy.

Call Senator Kyl and let him know that women and families are worth more than lip service. Any reform bill cannot discriminate against women, no matter how big his payoff from the industry. Here's his number: 202-224-4521.

While you're at it, remind him that more than 28,000 infants under the age of 1 die each year in the United States. Remind Dobson, too. They should be aware that with prenatal care and monitoring, some of those babies wouldn't be dead. 2/3rds of infant deaths are due to babies born early, many between 34 and 36 weeks of gestation. Yes, we ALL need maternity care to be a basic benefit.

After all, it's for the children, but it seems that Senator Kyl and his groomers at Family Research Council are only for children when they don't have to pay for it.

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