NEWS - House passes healthcare reform bill

[Guest guest]

House Passes Healthcare Reform Bill

Wayne J. Guglielmo

November 8, 2009 — In the face of near-unanimous Republican opposition

and a last-ditch effort to change the bill, the US House of

Representatives late Saturday night voted 220 to 215 in favor of

legislation to overhaul the nation's healthcare system. Thirty-nine of

the body's 258 Democratic members — many from conservative districts

in the South — joined their GOP House colleagues in opposing the

measure, a $1.1 trillion compromise bill that has aroused deep

passions on both sides of the aisle, as well as beyond the halls of

Congress.

In a statement issued from Camp shortly after the vote,

President Barack Obama, who had visited House Democrats earlier in the

day, said, " Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives

passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality,

affordable health care for the American people. "

For her part, House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) said she was " proud "

of House members who stood steadfast against overwhelming GOP

opposition. " When we can't find common ground, we have to stand our

ground, " she said at a news briefing following passage of the

legislation, which garnered just one Republican vote, that of Anh

" ph " Cao (R-LA).

But House Minority Leader A. Boehner (R-OH), whose GOP substitute

plan went down to defeat shortly before the historic vote, vowed to

continue the fight. " I came here to renew the American Dream, so my

kids and their kids have the same opportunities I had. I came here to

fight big-government monstrosities like this bill that dim the light

of freedom and diminish opportunity for future generations. Our plan

will lower premiums by up to 10%, making health care more affordable

for families and small businesses. That's what the American people

want, and that's what Republicans will continue to fight for. "

Action now turns to the Senate, where leaders are working to merge

bills from that body's Health Committee and Finance Committee. Like

the House-passed bill, the Senate Health Committee's proposal includes

a public-plan option, a new government insurance plan that would

compete with private plans in the marketplace and be authorized to

negotiate rates with physicians and hospitals. The Finance Committee

proposal, in contrast, would create state-level private, nonprofit,

consumer-run insurance cooperatives, which liberals in the Senate,

including West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller, say are fatally

flawed.

But to overcome a 60-vote hurdle — the number of votes Democrats would

need to cut off a GOP filibuster that some conservative Democrats have

threatened to join — Senate Democrats who favor the public-plan option

may have no choice but to compromise to get any sort of reform

legislation through their chamber.

If that happens, and it's still a big if, the next battleground would

be the conference committee, where negotiators of both chambers must

forge a single piece of legislation acceptable to both sides — and, of

course, to the President.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/712003

Not an MD