In a tight vote, the House passed its sweeping health bill late Saturday, marking the biggest victory yet for Democrats in their drive to create near-universal health insurance.
The bill passed by a 220-215 margin. It came after House leaders made a surprise last-minute concession that blocks abortion from the new government insurance plan in order to win over wavering Democrats.
Its passage moves Congress closer to the biggest expansion of the social safety net since the Medicare insurance program for the elderly was created in 1965. The measure spends $1.01 trillion over a decade to provide health insurance to an additional 36 million Americans and creates a new public insurance plan to compete with private insurers by 2013. It requires most Americans to carry insurance, creates a new exchange where they can shop for it and gives the lowest earners tax credits to help them pay for it.
11:08 PM ET — The final bill has been passed: 220-215, with 1 yea GOP and 39 nay Dem votes.
11:00 PM ET — Finally, they are voting on the bill. 215 votes already, all Dems. 36 nay votes; 41 necessary to kill the bill. 7 Dem votes left.
10:58 PM ET — TORT reform is rejected: 247-187, with 3 GOP yea and 12 Dem nay votes.
10:39 PM ET — Lawmakers are discussing TORT reform. Now voting on it – 15 minutes. It is pretty clear that the GOP will loose this one.
10:36 PM ET — GOP Substitute Bill is rejected: 258-176, with one nay GOP vote.
10:21 PM ET — Now 5 more minutes (expect 10 or more) to vote on the GOP substitute bill.
10:18 PM ET— The Stupak ammendment has been passed: 240-194 with 64 aye Dem votes. Funny to see that many lawmakers voted after the time expired.
09:57 PM ET — Lawmakers now have 15 minutes to vote on the Stupak ammendment, which bans abortion coverage in the public exchange.
09:26 PM ET — OK, the general debate is getting to an end. Now Boehner is closing and Pelosi or Waxman should follow. It seems Dems are confident that bill will pass. Probably not before midnight, though.
09:02 PM ET — As John and Adam always say, it is tough watching CSPAN — I’m tired of hearing “I yield 60 seconds to the distinguished member from Iowa”.
08:55 PM ET — Sources tell Politico that Dems have the vote: “House Democrats believe they’ve secured the 218 votes they need to approve the bill, several party insiders said.”
Schedule
- General debate (until around 9:30 PM ET)
- Debate on the Stupak anti-abortion amendment
- Debate on the Republican health care substitute
- Votes on the Stupak amendment and the GOP substitute
- Debate on the “motion to recommit,” a procedural move used by the minority party
- Vote on the motion to recommit
- Vote on the full bill (at around 12 PM ET)
Dems bill – HR 3962 (opencongress.org)
- seeks to expand coverage to 36 million Americans
- creation of government-run insurance plan
- requires all Americans to have health insurance
- prohibition on denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions (fine of up to U$250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years)
- establish a new health insurance exchange (where people will buy health insurance from)
- surtax on households with an income above U$350,000
- gross cost is U$1.055 trillion over 10 years
GOP bill – substitute to HR 3962 (PDF)
- seeks to expand coverage to 3 million Americans (less than population’s growth during the first 10 years)
- won’t create a government-run insurance plan
- reduce deficits by U$68 billion
Live blog – Huffington Post
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I’m forced to buy shit I don’t use every year. For starters, i pay thousands every year for public schools. I have no kids and never will.
Guess what, it’s the right thing to do. I get it. So, stfu.
Isn’t there a war or something to keep u occupied while dems work on domestic problems?
#98, Get your nose out of conFusion’s butt.
And FYI, which war are you talking about? The Iraq war which Obama said he would get us out of or the other one, which he said he would get us out of?