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The weekend's 220-215 vote in the House of Representatives to approve healthcare legislation received follow-up coverage only from NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. She called it an oxymoronically "huge but narrow victory" and outlined key elements such as a government-run public insurance option, coverage mandates for individuals and employers, a ban on pre-existing condition denials.
Burying the lead, NBC's O'Donnell turned belatedly to the "heated fallout over one controversial last-minute change." She warned that future gynecological plans, especially for the uninsured or the self-employed, will probably be forbidden from including coverage for termination of an unwanted pregnancy. "Democrats say that without that restriction on abortion it would not have passed the House. It was make it or break it."
ABC's Jake Tapper in his Exclusive with Barack Obama did not select abortion as his newsmaking healthcare question. Instead he chose Medicare. Some future Medicare spending will be diverted to pay for healthcare reform, Tapper pointed out. Does the President promise to prevent a restoration of those cuts some time in the future? "Congress needs to know that when I say this has to be deficit neutral I mean it," came the reply, leaving the door open to restoring the Medicare cuts as long as equivalent funds are raised by some other means.
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