The crushing of a health care revolt — by GOP women
Throughout the past week, Sonny Perdue walked point for the GOP in Georgia, directing the response to the new health care law passed by Congress.
Republicans of every stripe faithfully lined up behind the governor.
What most people didn’t know was that, at the same time Perdue was leading the charge up Pill Hill, a revolt was brewing within his rear guard at the state Capitol. The target was a basic building block in the Republican concept of national health care.
And the rebellion was led by GOP women, assisted by their Democratic sisters.
The women had managed to stall two bills in the Legislature that would allow individual Georgians to buy their health insurance from out-of-state companies. HB 1184 is sponsored by the governor. A second is SB 407, the creation of state Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta).
Nationwide competition would lower costs, supporters say.
At midweek, Hill’s measure was up for a vote in the Senate. In the midst of the debate, two dozen female members of the House trooped into the opposite chamber and lined its walls — an unnerving display of support for the two women senators attempting to derail the legislation.
One of them was Renee Unterman of Buford, the only woman in the Senate Republican caucus. The Democrat was Nan Orrock of Atlanta. The bill was tabled on a 27-23 vote.
In the House, the governor quickly found himself twisting female arms.
Before it could be ready for the big time, the Republican version of health care would first have to get past a quiet Capitol tradition — a bipartisan alliance of women fiercely devoted to health care issues, especially when it comes to insurance.
For decades, policies sold in Georgia often ignored female complaints. Over the last 25 years, the women at the Capitol had banded together to demand coverage for the essentials — such things as hospital stays after giving birth, contraception, pap smears and mammograms.
Georgia now mandates coverage for 45 specific conditions and treatments in insurance policies.
Many women in the Legislature see the sale of policies from other states — which have varying degrees of regulation — as an attempt by insurance companies to dodge the mandates they’ve worked for. And they fear that consumers will end up being sold complicated policies that don’t cover the basics.
“I have fought for these mandates my whole political career. I’m a former Grady nurse,” Unterman said. “I have serious concern about young people buying insurance, because I know they don’t read those contracts.”
In the House, opposition was being stirred, in part, by state Rep. Judy Manning (R-Marietta), chairman of the House Children and Youth Committee.
Like Unterman, Manning opposes the new federal health care. “I’m adamantly opposed to anybody mandating that I buy insurance,” she said.
But the health insurance that people do buy should be worth something, Manning maintained. “You don’t get auto insurance without collision. So why would you get health insurance without some of these mandates to protect you from getting these dreaded diseases?”
The screws began tightening at 5 p.m. Friday, the day that bills had to be passed by one chamber or the other – or be declared dead.
The only Republican woman in the Senate was informed that her male colleagues had gathered enough votes to bring back SB 407.
Cheaper insurance is essential when parents are being forced to choose between mortgages and health care, argued Hill, the bill’s sponsor. “Those people who don’t have health insurance have zero mandates,” he said. “Their financial security is at risk every single day.”
But Unterman was told that, if she would join Hill, an amendment would be included that would require out-of-state insurance companies to honor most of Georgia’s coverage requirements.
She did, and the bill passed with two votes to spare. Women from the House again had come to watch in silent protest. They numbered only three. None were Republican.
Afterward, outside the chamber, Unterman wrapped her arms around state Sen. Don Thomas (R-Dalton) and began to cry. Senate Democrats predicted the fix-it amendment that Unterman had agreed to is likely to be stripped away before final passage.
In the House, backers of the governor’s bill were served notice that House women had prepared more than a dozen amendments. So the House rules committee awarded HB 1184 protected status – no amendments would be allowed.
The House debate began shortly after 10 p.m. and lasted an hour. Woman after woman took to the well to protest the measure, but all were Democrats. Only one Republican woman, Penny Houston of Nashville, spoke in favor of the measure – the rest sat silently in their chairs.
The last word went to House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island). “What opponents of the bill are really saying is, the people of Georgia are not smart enough, intelligent enough to be able to read and discern for themselves,” he said. “I don’t need anybody in Washington, D.C., and I surely don’t need anyone in Atlanta, Ga., telling me how to meet my health care needs.”
The governor’s health insurance bill passed easily, 108-55. The women’s alliance had been fractured. Of 10 Republican women, only two voted no: Manning and Rep. Jill Chambers of Atlanta.
* * *
One additional explanation for the lopsided result in the House: Several GOP lawmakers were told that, if they voted for the governor’s out-of-state insurance bill, Americans For Prosperity wouldn’t call them out on their vote for the $169 million hospital bed tax, which also passed Friday.
Virginia Galloway, leader of the anti-tax group’s state chapter, denied the bargain. Galloway said she had told GOP lawmakers that, if they passed HB 236, a zero-based budgeting bill, she wouldn’t turn the bed tax into a scorecard vote.
But the House didn’t pass HB 236. And so Galloway (no relation to this blogger) intends to go after those Republicans who voted to pass the bed tax.
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64 comments Add your comment
deegee
March 28th, 2010
8:36 am
Nancy10s, you might be able to make important financial decisions on your own, but you are outnumbered by those that live day-to-day. They get sick, they get old, they require health care. Someone has to pay for it.
The Republican Way
March 28th, 2010
8:56 am
Scandals’ domino effect shakes Ga. GOP leaders
By Shannon McCaffrey, The Associated Press
December 16, 2009
ATLANTA — What’s going on at the Georgia Statehouse these days?
The House speaker, who tried to kill himself by swallowing pills, stepped down amid allegations of an affair with a lobbyist. A lawmaker who wants to succeed him admits that the IRS investigated tax legislation he sponsored that saved the governor thousands of dollars. And a lawsuit criticizes the state’s insurance commissioner — himself a gubernatorial hopeful — for taking a trip to the Oscars on a campaign contributor’s tab.
Ethics allegations are nothing new at the Georgia Capitol, where money, power and politics mingle. But the flood of recent scandals among the state’s Republican leaders has left the Peach State’s image bruised.
“It’s a crisis for the Republican party in this state,” said Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University.
Georgia has voted reliably Republican in recent years, but Abramowitz said the recent mess might give Democrats a fighting chance in next year’s battle for governor.
“It’s embarrassing nationally,” Georgia House Democratic Leader DuBose Porter said Wednesday.
Democrats have seized on ethics, taking the wraps off new legislation on Wednesday to strengthen laws that govern state legislators’ conduct.
The domino effect shaking the state’s conservative political establishment began with the speaker’s resignation last month. Glenn Richardson is set to step down Jan 1. after allegations by his ex-wife that he had an affair with a lobbyist.
His No. 2, speaker pro tem Mark Burkhalter, said he was eager to take over the reins as speaker. Then three days later, with only the vaguest of explanations about other career opportunities, he said he wouldn’t seek the post, one of the most powerful in Georgia politics. He has disappeared since, refusing to explain his decision further.
Allegations of wrongdoing have also clouded the race for governor.
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal — a Republican candidate for governor — is facing an inquiry by two congressional ethics panels after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported a lucrative deal his company had with the state.
On Wednesday, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine — another GOP gubernatorial hopeful — was defending himself after a lawsuit surfaced claiming he took trips bankrolled by a campaign contributor who asked for help in an insurance dispute.
The federal lawsuit involves a dispute over investments in an insurance company. The company alleges Dr. Jeffrey Gallups shelled out almost $2,000 in 2007 for Oxendine and his wife to attend the Oscars, according to court documents.
Gallups is involved in a lawsuit against the Indianapolis Life Insurance Company, which Oxendine’s office is investigating.
Oxendine denied any wrongdoing and said he’d broken no law in taking personal trips with a friend. He said he had reimbursed Gallups for the trips, although he refused to provide proof.
“What you have here is an insurance company accused of cheating people, and they are trying to do whatever they can to get at me,” Oxendine told The Associated Press.
He said his office found wrongdoing by the company after an investigation prompted in part by complaints from Gallups.
Indianapolis Life Insurance Spokeswoman Catherine Huggins said the company “strongly disagrees” with Oxendine’s assertions and said it is reviewing his report on the company’s market conduct.
The fallout continues in the Georgia House. A lawmaker considered a leading candidate to replace Richardson has been forced to explain old ethics problems that also ensnared the governor.
In an e-mail to the House GOP caucus, state Rep. Larry O’Neal — who had worked as Gov. Sonny Perdue’s lawyer while serving in the House — revealed on Wednesday that the IRS investigated a tax break that saved Gov. Sonny Perdue about $100,000 on a 2004 Florida land deal. O’Neal said he was exonerated by the probe and that the governor didn’t have to pay additional taxes.
The allegations had dogged Perdue during the 2006 race for governor.
And state Rep. Mark Butler came under fire after e-mails surfaced suggesting he complained to University of West Georgia officials after they fired his ex-girlfriend, Erin Henderson, a lobbyist for the school.
Her firing over the summer prompted a phone call with Butler, according to Danielle Tackett, a secretary to the vice president of university advancement Michael Ruffner.
“He said Dr. Ruffner had just pissed off the whole political party firing Erin. This includes Speaker of the House, Rules Chairman and Senate,” Tackett wrote of the conversation with Butler.
“(H)e was very vocal with his feelings in expressing his anger at the situation.”
Butler denied he had tried to influence the school and said he believed his words may have been misconstrued.
Associated Press Writer Kate Brumback contributed to this report
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Road Scholar
March 28th, 2010
9:23 am
Yeah, right, the Repubs will march to victory in November? Just look at the last 8 years at a national level. Huge increases in the deficit BEFORE OBAMA. Two endless wars that were kept off the books, no regulation or policing of the banks and Wall Street with the bailout,…
On the state level, please tell me what this governor and his party has done for Georgians? Transportation…the Fast forward program that was financed by selling $2B in bonds…that has a debt service of over $400 M per year (1/4th of yearly gas revenues)for 20 years. No new sources of revenue to attept to meet our needs. Education…Furloughs, reduced budgets, removal of some of the assistance to counties. Water…the ongoing saga of conservation, no new supplies, lossing lawsuits against adjacent states…Abortion..Takes up too much time and effort from other pressing needs; has already been debated over and over and over- the energizer bunny has lost all energy and interest! Economy…tax breaks for special interests and businesses..now how has that worked for the population of Georgia?
I suggest that the people of Georgia study recent history, the politicians records, their platforms etc before blindly following tea partiers, or the far left and make their decision on that.
part of the plan
March 28th, 2010
10:09 am
end game in play; amnesty is next so that 30 million added you can throw out; there are around 12 million illegals here in the US and as soon as they get papers they will fit under the law. I have to give it to Obama; he had to pass health care before he gave amnesty; next comes VAT; then through the EPA cap and trade will really drive the nails in the economy; Obama will not legalize drugs because he needs that arguement to get some gun control mandates started.then once he takes our guns then he will legalize drugs to keep the population more docile.
part of the plan
March 28th, 2010
10:12 am
if ppl want real change and the truth; please study up on Ron Paul; he is the one man that has spoken the truth about the war, deficit, and our constitution.
Independent
March 28th, 2010
10:25 am
Why couldn’t there be a straightforward bill that covers everyone? Why does there have to be such a convoluted piece of legislation that there be few if any that really know what is in it and really understands the short term and long term implications? Why is there not a law in place that we the people demand clarity, simplicity and straightfowardness in all legislation…that no one can say they will support a bill IF they can include their piece of pork that usually has absolutely nothing to do with the bill being passed? We the people have let this practice of politics go on way to long! We should all be standing shoulder to shoulder on this, no matter what our party affiliation, or background. The murkiness that is created in these sessions and bills is what has gotten us to where we are today and how those with selfish intents line their pockets and procure a cushy set up for life for themselves and have the rest of us in the state we are today. No politician is there in MY/OUR interest who does not demand that this practice be changed NOW!!!
Republican turned Democrat
March 28th, 2010
11:14 am
@Independant, pork is the American way. Unless something is done about it, it will always be there. Both parties are guilty of it. But a law with some pork attached is better than no law at all.
@all who think the government just took away that last sliver of freedom you had left. Come on folks, apply common sense. The healthcare law is similar to social security and medicare in the sense that the government is FORCING you to have a retirement and health plan. If you work a traditional job, it is taken out of your paycheck and it is involuntary. But rarely do you hear anyone crying “socialism” over that because most deem it as a right. There would be anarchy if the govt repealed those laws. So why should the healthcare law be repealed? It doesn’t infringe on your freedom one bit more than social security does. So unless you are a hypocrite, why don’t you and your tea party idiots move to take down social security, medicare, education grants, and every other law that doesn’t allow you to do what you want, when you want, how you want and where you want. Let’s just have total anarchy…and we’ve already seen what that looks like, just watch the news when the tea party is in town.
Let unite! Wake up america!
March 28th, 2010
4:48 pm
If it is right then it should be free! along with the meds and food. You friggin idots dont see that if i dont accept any mandated intitlements I will be criminalized for it.
The welfare state is getting bigger and bigger folks. More and more poeple are relying on dems to give em what they want. Just what we need in this country more slackers. There are better solutions than what was forced upon us. Other conservatuve ideas outside of Obama’s plans were never even entertained by the hard leftist and flat out rejected in some cases. mark my words, come november they will see the wrath of the american public.
to reply to Mr republican turncoat keep watching the news they know what your best interest is.
Good luck and be well.
Republican turned Democrat
March 28th, 2010
8:07 pm
You will be criminalized? It’s a fine friend not a criminal act! Just like you GOP leaders, I see you like to exaggerate things. For example, my favorite GOP reason for opposition to the bill is the rumor about all them illegals getting free health insurance. This one caused a huge frenzy with the ignorant GOP following that buys into all that horse dung. There are 32 million plus uninsured AMERICAN CITIZENS that will be insured. The 10 million plus illegals are not getting tax-payer funded health insurance.
I’m still waiting for Armageddon to strike. I bet you 20 years from now if they were to repeal this law, 99% of the GOP constituency would be the first ones crying about government screwing them…watch, you’ll see. Hypocrites are a dime a dozen. The GOP is full of them. Now all you doomsday naysayers run off and go get your daily dose of Hannity and Beck propaganda.
Paddy O
March 29th, 2010
9:12 am
Hey, Patriot – go back to your commune.
IRA
March 29th, 2010
11:19 am
We would like to merge our party with the GOP!
Jumbo G is the king of conventional thinking
March 29th, 2010
1:14 pm
Nice try Jumbo G! We will see how crushed it is. Hey, you are trying hard to tow the party line and I give you an A for effort. Too bad you and the other democrat media wh@res are making zero zilch nada impact on how the Tea Party/ Anti Big Gov’t Obamacare folks are viewed. I do understand that you must do something, so carry on Media Dinosaurs!!!!!! Lumber proudly into into the gentle night. See ya in November, suckers!!!!!!!!
James
March 30th, 2010
6:13 am
Wow “Jumbo G” – you’re a nasty little person you know that?
John Wayne
April 12th, 2010
3:43 pm
What has happened to “buyer beware”. Why can’t we take personal responsiblity to READ our contracts before we sign and know what we are buying. Shame on us for signing on to the menality that we NEED government to protect us from big, nasty business … who, by the way is paying most of our salaries. I want LESS government and more PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.