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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Congress has exempted itself from the healthcare bill. That’s all you need to know. This is not going anywhere. The Senate will not pass this. It’s unconstitutional to force an individual to contract for a service, in other words, Pelosi and Obama cant force you to purchase health insurance if you don’t want it.
#1: Goracle, the government mandates individuals to buy many things, such as automobile insurances. I agree that it will be difficult for the Senate to pass the bill.
You are not required to purchase car insurance if you dont have a car. Please give me one example of something the government forces you to purchase by specifically legislating that you shall purchase….
#1
tell me about that AFTER you pay your car insurance. ENFORCED by the STATE.
This will be the first bill ever to require every adult american citizen to purchase a service.
Dumdass people. So tell me, all those folks who live in new york city that dont own a car, how much do they pay for car insurance?
that’s what I thought…
#3 IDENTIFICATION..
get stopped by any cop, and NOT be able to show an ID…see what happens.
Birth certificate. you PAY at the hospital when they ask for insurance. BECAUSE you cant afford to have kids.
Also want to see you walk to the store and work. THEn try to carry it all home.
Even if you have a FRiend with a car, It becomes a requirement.
You also are FORCED to pay the insurance any Store/company carries..Its added to the cost of goods.
You are forced to pay INTERSTATE tax on goods shipped to the store.
You pay for ALL the lic./Fees/subsidies that Stores and companies GET.. IF you want Clothes and food, and a BED to sleep on.
With a NATIONAL plan..
Your doctor gets to lower his prices as his INSURANCE goes down..AND if he makes to many MISTAKES, he wont have a job.
#1, Congress has exempted itself from the healthcare bill. That’s all you need to know.
FTW
ECA are you for real? Give me one example of a federal law that says you must go out and purchase something. You can’t because this will be the first.
Just wake me when it’s over. So I can know how I’m being royally screwed.
By the way ECA, Liberals that set home and watch jerry springer all day that dont have a job dont pay for any of those things you mention.
Still waiting for the federal law that specifically dictates that all american citizen adults must purchase a specific service or product. I know this will be a very long wait since no current law exist.
Let me recommend the last few episodes of NPR’s Planet Money. While this is a left leaning podcast, it does explain the problems with health care in great detail, and I’m quite interested in hearing a right wing take on what they’ve carefully explained.
I don’t think the weird system we have is reformable.
Since politicians can’t be trusted to do the right thing it difficult to predict if this illegal oppressive bill will pass or not.
The one thing that is certain is if it does pass the jails will be overflowing.
It’s also a safe bet that Madam Pelosi will be found floating face down near Alcatraz.
14,
A person from india said to me on the net..
Our nation is more corrupt then yours..
I said..
Our nation only Taxes it, license it and make it legal, so it wont be considered corruption.
#6,
you are telling me that they ALL walk?? and/OR that NONE of their friends/family have cars, that they get access to to GOTO the store/market/MOVIE/…
PS, if you are working, you are REQUIRED to pay for the BAIL OUT..
You are required to pay Workmans comp.
You are REQUIRED to pay for social sec.
You are REQUIRED to pay for Insurance from work. Either YOU and/or your BOSS pays for it.
doesnt pelosi know holloween was last week-take off the mask and put away the trick and treat bag you bag bitch someone please have this women removed from the senate before she does more damage.
let me say something interesting..
What can be ended/finished/combined with a NATIONAL health coverage.
State Workmans comp. as you are already covered.
REQUIRED medical insurance from work. covered.
MEDICARE…its covered.
MEDICAID…COVERED.
REQUIRE the rich to PAY into the system, even if they dont use it would be a GREAT part of this. AS THEY dont pay for social security, retirement funds, OR MANDATED medical anyway.
WHICH is part of the reason the system is in trouble.
To many UPPER middle class jobs that DIDNT pay into the system, DROPPED the employee INTO THE FEDERAL system. which ISNT FAIR.
MUCH of the retirement FUNDS were invested ??? [in WHAT??] PROPERTY/mortgages.. NOW those persons USING THOSE FUNDS for retirement are getting SCREW’d, and jumping to SOCIAL SECURITY..AND they didnt PAY into the system.
If they are going to impose a ban on refusing insurance due to pre-existing conditions, then they must also set a cap in the rate if that happens. All the private insurance companies will do is say “We’ll give you coverage then for $2000 a month. Take it or leave it.” In which case, their only option will be the government run plan. Sounds like a scam to me.
A trillion dollars for healthcare for ten years? I wonder how much that useless wasteful war in Iraq that all the republicans wanted, that wasted thousands of lives, will cost over ten years?
The Witch wouldn’t have brought it to a vote if she didn’t know she had the votes.
lets see..
Give the Doctors $1,000,000 each..
at $1 mill per doctor, how many Doctors..
$1,000,000,000,000/$1,000,000
is 1 million Doctors..
How much do we pay,
hEALTH INS,
Medicaid
Medicare
Workmans comp..
PROBABLY ALLOT MORE.. then $8 trillion.
http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml
“National health spending is expected to reach $2.5 trillion in 2009, accounting for 17.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). By 2018, national health care expenditures are expected to reach $4.4 trillion—more than double 2007 spending.1”
hMM, Im right..
Profits over 10 years would be over 25 trillion.
I think I would rather pay the 8 trillion over the 25 trillion.
With those numbers in #21..
you could have given EVERY man/women/child in teh USA $1million and STILL Paid EVERY bill, and STILL had money left over.
2.5 trillion is PROFIT, not counting expenditures..
George Washing did not have health insurance and lived to 67. The government cannot force anyone to buy health care. People do not need insurance to walk, no requirement for walking insurance. Auto insurance requirement is based on the non-necessity of driving on public roads and the legal argument that won out was that by not having insurance you put people at risk, so the states decided that if you are going to drive and put people’s lives at risk, you have to show that you have insurance. You do not have to have a car. If you have a job you have to pay Social Security, but you don’t have to if you don’t have a job. The government cannot force you to pay Social Security if you don’t work. If you live off the land like is done by many cultures for thousands of years you don’t have to pay anything as you have no income. Food is not taxed because it’s necessary for life. The government does not force anyone to pay tax on necessary food.
ECA, I cant believe that you dont understand that in a country of 300 million people, not all of them own a car. Let me blow your mind, most people that live in the boroughs of NY city DONT OWN A CAR AND DONT PAY CAR INSURANCE BECAUSE OF THAT! Also, all the stuff you mentioned we pay are taxes. I am still waiting for someone to show me a federal law that says that every american citizen of adult (18 yrs) age must purchase a SERVICE! No law exist currently and that’s why this bill will ultimately be found unconstitutional if it ever really had a chance of becoming law which it doesnt since the senate will never get 60 votes for this bill with a public option.
As soon as congress comes up with a healthcare plan that they DO NOT EXEMPT themselves from, thats a healthcare plan I will support. Until such a plan comes along I will not support any of this fraud.
I hope the Senate does it’s job on this one to bury it.
The House of Representatives needs some adult supervision.
ECA is off his meds. The trillion dollar estimate over ten years for the bill being debated just the federal cost of the reform (and is not very accurate since it measures revenue for 10 years, but expenses for only 7, and includes $500 billion that will be “saved” by cuts in Medicare–which are unlikely to happen. The $2.5 trillion per year is the total cost of health care. The bill does not propose to use federal dollars to fund the whole system (far from it). It does attempt to reduce costs mostly by requiring people who don’t currently buy insurance (mostly young people) to buy it or be subject to higher taxes, fines or jail time. Guess it’s a good way to ensure people have health care–they do have medical facilities in the penitentiary, right?
My question is why the surtax on households with an income above U$350,000 is stated above, when the figure (for joint filers) is one million in the bill?
#16. This is different in the sense that states create and enforce car insurance laws. Whereas here the federal government is forcing all Americans to have health insurance or be penalized for not having said insurance.
#1, #2, #4
“#1: Goracle, the government mandates individuals to buy many things, such as automobile insurances. I agree that it will be difficult for the Senate to pass the bill.
#1
tell me about that AFTER you pay your car insurance. ENFORCED by the STATE.”
Two gigantic holes: 1) You do not need to have car while mandate on health insurance affects anyone ALIVE. Guess, if you don’t want one you can kill yourself to solve the issue with this Dem’ bill.
2) Mandatory car insurance is there to protect OTHERS from you. In no one state does it mandate that you must cover yourself or your own stuff.