A version of the Republican health care bill was leaked today, and it's underwhelming, to say the least. For starters, the draft bill completely ignores women's health care issues. In fact, there is not a single mention of "women" in the entire bill (and "woman" appears just once, in a passage about - surprise! - abortion). By comparison, The Affordable Health Care for America Act introduced by House Democrats has 101 mentions of "women" on 37 separate pages.

What are we supposed to think about all this? Are Republicans betting that insurance companies will fix the gender gap on their own? Will they magically start covering maternity care? Will they voluntarily stop treating rape and domestic violence as pre-existing conditions? Here are just a few other glaring omissions in this draft version of the GOP bill:

• Allows insurers to deny coverage due to "pre-existing conditions" (which, we've recently learned, range from underweight babies to rape and domestic violence victims)


• Allows insurers to withhold maternity coverage and follow-up visits for the baby's health


• Allows insurers to require limitless out-of-pocket costs, which have already resulted in sending millions of Americans into medical bankruptcy


• Allows insurers to continue the practice of "gender rating," whereby insurers often arbitrarily charge women up to 48% more than men for the same policies

This week, Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson stepped onto the U.S. House floor and distilled the Republican strategy on health care reform into three simple parts:

1. Don't get sick
2. If you do get sick...
3. Die quickly.

Watch Rep. Grayson's statement on the house floor:

And watch him discuss his statements during CNN's Situation Room:

While Rep. Grayson's method of exposing the result of Republican foot-dragging remains controversial, his point is clear - Republicans have come to the table in good faith, and while they work to block reform at all costs, people are dying.

Earlier this year, Republican Senator Jim Demint revealed the Republican strategy on a secret conference call, when he concluded of their health care strategy, "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." What the Republican Party continues to ignore - and what Rep. Grayson is trying to highlight - is that their refusal to work toward reform amounts in people getting sicker, and people dying. Period.

44,000 Americans die each year because they lack health insurance. That's 122 people each day. So yes, when Republicans resort to the cynical politicking of death panels, Medicare myths and "socialized medicine" fear-mongering, people are getting sick, and people are dying.

SEIU President Andy Stern spoke on this subject at The Atlantic's First Draft of History conference: "[Republicans] have no health care plan and they are letting people continue to suffer," he said. "That is an issue and they should be held accountable. And the insurance companies are even worse because people have been paying for their health care can't get it when they need it and then they suffer and die." (Read Huffington Post for full story)