House narrowly approves health care bill
BY CHRIS CASTEEL
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104
Published: November 8, 2009
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted Saturday to remake the nation’s health insurance system and take a major step toward universal coverage.
Meeting in a rare weekend session that lasted more than 14 hours, the House approved a Democratic bill 220 to 215 that includes new mandates for benefits and a government-run plan for those who can’t afford private insurance. Democratic leaders, who worked for weeks to round up enough votes, got help Saturday from President Barack Obama — who went to Capitol Hill to give a pep talk — and from a compromise with anti-abortion Democrats who wanted the bill to contain explicit prohibitions on government money being used to pay for abortions. All five House members from Oklahoma voted against the bill and against the procedural "rule” allowing debate. Only one of the 177 Republicans in the House voted for the bill — Rep. Joseph Cao, of Louisiana — while 39 Democrats opposed it. Hours before the vote, Obama met behind closed doors with Democratic lawmakers and urged them to make history. "Most public servants pass through their entire careers without a chance to make as important a difference in the lives of their constituents and the life of this country,” Obama said at the White House after that meeting. "I urge members of Congress to rise to this moment.” Though passage of the ambitious legislation marked a major milestone in the decades-long effort to achieve universal health care coverage, the bill is a long way from becoming law. Attention now shifts to the Senate, where prospects for a government-run health care plan, commonly referred to as a public option, are thought to be dim. The Senate could be weeks away from taking up its version of health care reform. The House bill would expand greatly the number of Americans with health care coverage through a combination of mandates on businesses and individuals and through expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the nation’s poor. Under the bill, businesses with annual payrolls exceeding $500,000 would have to provide coverage to their employees or pay a tax. That tax would reach 8 percent of payroll for businesses with annual payrolls greater than $750,000. Individuals also would have to buy insurance or pay a penalty. Medicaid coverage would be extended to all those with incomes 150 percent above the poverty level (currently about $33,000 per year for a family of four) and the federal government would pick up most of the additional costs. An official congressional estimate says 96 percent of people in the country ultimately would have coverage because of the House bill. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in September that more than 46 million people lack health insurance, but that figure may be low since it came from a survey taken before joblessness skyrocketed to its current rate of 10.2 percent. New taxes on businesses and the wealthy would pay for some of the bill’s $1.2 trillion cost over 10 years. The bill also calls for cutting federal subsidies to Medicare Advantage programs and trimming other payments in that entitlement program. Democrats said the bill would create a system in which insurance would be more "portable” and in which no one could be denied coverage for having a pre-existing condition. Private insurers no longer could place lifetime caps on benefits, and annual out-of-pocket expenses would be limited. "Never again will you be denied coverage because you have diabetes or asthma, or because you are pregnant, or because you have anything else your insurer decides is a pre-existing condition,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said during debate on the floor. "Never again will your coverage run out. Nor will you find that coverage you thought you paid for was actually not there at all. And never again can insurance companies drive out competition and set premiums as high as they like because there will be a public insurance option and a transparent marketplace to keep them honest.” But Republicans argued that the bill ultimately would drive many employers to drop their insurance plans and leave their workers to buy coverage from the public plan. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said there would be a two-tiered system in which only the "elites” could afford private coverage and the rest of Americans would buy insurance from the federal government. Other Republicans warned that the public option eventually would be the only option. Rep. Mary Fallin, R-Oklahoma City, said Americans want reform but don’t want "socialized medicine” and "more federal deficit spending on the backs of our children.” The debate over major health care changes has roiled the country, just as it did when former President Bill Clinton tried to take on the issue in the early 1990s. This past summer, congressional town hall meetings drew large crowds of people irate over the idea that the government would become more involved in health care. On Saturday, just as earlier in the week, protesters outside the U.S. Capitol yelled, "Kill the bill.” Though large organizations such as the AARP and the American Medical Association backed the bill, the most important group at the end may have been the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which wanted a longstanding ban on federally-funded abortion maintained. Democratic leaders agreed Friday night to allow a vote on stringent prohibitions against abortion services when any kind of federal subsidies are involved. The House approved the anti-abortion amendment 240-194, despite objections from several Democratic women lawmakers who said it was unnecessary.
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U.S. Government, Health and Fitness, Public Finance, Domestic Policy, Social Policy, Federal Budget, Political Policy, Politics, Business, Personal Finance, Abortion, Health Care Policy, Health Care Issues, Paying for Health Care, Insurance, Health Insurance
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"We call it civilized. We want to look after our kids and our elders."
And that's it, in a nutshell.
Fallin uses the "S" word to unfairly demonize the plan and misrepresents the "tax" issue, 144 people in her district die every year because they had no HC Ins.
Fallin and her ilk are representing Big Corporate (Corporate Socialism) over the health of her constituents...
Her for Gov? No way. The GOP in this nation (outside Hee Haw) are down to about 19% in people who claim affiliation with them...and only 9% approve of their congress representations.
Get rid of the rest and allow us to rebuild America. We cannot handle any more GOP control and obstructionist leanings. Enough already!
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It says after 5 years if the private plan provided by your employer doesn't meet the same standards as the government plan, than you'll have to buy the government plan. In other words, it's forcing your employer to provide good insurance and giving them 5 years to do it.
Try the truth instead of just posting any BS you find on the internet put out by hacks. Go read it for yourself.
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Read it and weep. It proves that it's easier to make everyone equally miserable than it is to allow individuals to elevate themselves. Any of you that really want this must not have much to begin with. You leeches on society, you are welcome!
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mccaughey2apr02,0,4451075.story
VA health care was more popular than the private sector and less mistakes.
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Repubs---I know you disagree with all this, and that is your right....but don't think for a minute that you are in the majority. In this state you are surrounded by people who agree with you and you watch your news from people that agree with you, but Obama won in a landslide and will again...the overwhelming majority of people think that this is right for our country.
Since you've never lived in any of the those places OR used the services shut your piehole. The statement about never havng to wait, good service, is a load of crap. I've been stationed in places where cradle to grave health care is provided, the people who can afford it go to either private or other countries for good service.
WIN IN 10.
crony capitalism.
Another part of the documentary showed an older woman being dropped off in a taxi cab at a clinic, the video was the outside surveilence at the clinic, the woman was dazed and did not know where she was at, the clinic said it happened all the time. This was a large hospital that would not treat her because she was un-insured.
This happens a lot even though they passed laws.
Insurance is one of the largest industries in the world, I have had an insurance license for a long time and know it very well.
I wish it were not so, but it is, and it is all predicted to be this way in the last days of this world, so I don't know why I'm so surprised by it.
That is an outright lie. Anyone in America, INCLUDING ILLEGAL ALIENS can go to any emergency room and get treatment. I guarantee you that most people who "can't afford health care" can afford cell phones, tatoos, and cable tv.
Go watch Michael Moore's Sicko
Jacklyn you remind me why I left Oklahoma
God Help America.
God Help America!
This will result in a new cash only members only healthcare system that will be enjoyed by the rich elite, celebrities and politicians. While the working class fights a Wal-Mart level of service goverment run system.
I have a great idea. Why don't we let the governement run everything. Then nobody can make any money and we can all sit at home stealing money from are elderly parents like are pal Milkman.
This bill will kill our healthcare industry. The best and brightest will take their skills to the private sector.
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a Boren fan but I'd really like to see that organization come to OK.
and see the reception they get.