National Public Health Care Passes U.S. House
November 7th, 2009Historic Legislation a Major Victory for President Obama
by Glynn Wilson
In a vote of historic proportions for the future of the middle class in the United States, the House of Representatives passed a $1.2 trillion national health care plan in a rare Saturday night session, 220-215.
The bill, which now moves over to the Senate where another close, tough vote is expected, is designed to overhaul private insurance practices and guarantee affordable, comprehensive coverage to almost every American citizen.
Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to bring a measure to the floor before Thanksgiving, where the fight will focus on whether the public option should include an “opt out” clause for states, as Reid has proposed. The alternative is to require employers to provide coverage to their workers, or a less punitive approach preferred by Senate moderates. There will also be a debate over whether to tax the rich and/or high-cost health-care policies, a provision economists call the most important for controlling costs that could contribute to the deficit.
During a special trip to the Capitol to push the legislation that could be a hallmark of his presidency, President Obama urged the Democrats still wavering to put aside their political fears and embrace the bill’s ambitious objectives.
“Opportunities like this come around maybe once in a generation,” he said. “This is our moment to live up to the trust that the American people have placed in us. Even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard. This is our moment to deliver.”
The House legislation would for the first time require every individual to obtain insurance, and would require all but the smallest employers to provide coverage to their workers. It would vastly expand Medicaid and create a new marketplace where people could obtain federal subsidies to buy insurance from private companies or from a new government-run insurance plan, according to the Washington Post.
Though some people would receive no benefits — including about 6 million illegal immigrants, according to congressional estimates — the bill would virtually close the coverage gap for people who do not have access to health-care coverage through their jobs.
“For generations, the American people have called for affordable, quality health care for their families,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said before the vote. “Today, the call will be answered.”
Pelosi needed 218 of 258 Democrats to pass the bill, so a compromise was reached on an amendment to bar coverage of abortions in the public plan.
Birmingham Congressman Artur Davis, who wants to be the first black governor of Alabama, as well as Blue Dawg Democrat Parker Griffith of Huntsville, were among only 39 Democrats to vote against the bill.
The only Republican to vote for it was Joseph Cao of Louisiana, who represents New Orleans. All the Republicans from Alabama voted against it.
November 8th, 2009 at 4:04 am
All the Republicans from Alabama voted against it.
An excellent reason for AL to find new Republicans, next election.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:44 am
New representatives of some stripe anyway…
The poor bastards around here who don’t have health care are as likely to vote Republican as the rich, white sons of bitches who deny them health care. It truly is a land of contradictions…
November 9th, 2009 at 10:59 am
From Pam’s List:
It seems like all we progressives…liberals…rational humans get from Washington are choices between brands of rat poison for us to swallow.
I am equally disgusted, Marilyn, Jack and others, and breathlessly awaiting the “spin” we are going to hear about the House Bill to try to make it palpable to Americans. It’s a weak bill, at best, once again favoring Corporate Health Care interests over real health care reform which will benefit Americans. When the “mandatory/forced health insurance for all” kicks in, it will be interesting to watch the Feds try to squeeze “blood from turnips.”
Has anyone heard about an automatic subsidy to buy insurance for those whose earnings are below the National Poverty level of $10,326 a year and will that subsidy be enough to pay insurance premiums for a whole year and the year after that, and after that?
What is the Public Plan, if we actually get one, going to cost a year for coverage? From what I’m reading, the Senate plan is pushing for an “opt out” of the public plan for the States. That’s a scary thought for anyone living in Alabama and needs to be kept in mind when we go to the polls to vote for State Legislators and Governor.
If you will remember, when mandatory car insurance was passed, one of the first things that happened was that a couple of the State Representatives who passed the mandatory bill suddenly went into the car insurance business so they could cash in on the forced buy of car insurance.
Meanwhile, no low cost State Insurance Plan was offered, like the plans other Mandatory Car Insurance States had created to ease the burden of low income people who must drive in order to get to their two or three minimum wage jobs they are trying to hold down to keep their children fed and a roof over their heads.
We need to nail down all the Candidates for Governor and the State Legislature right now for some PROMISES and PLEDGES about what they intend to do to assist Alabamians when the Mandatory (Buy it or else you will pay a fine, or go to jail) Health Insurance kicks in. Will they “opt in,” or out of the National Plan…. and if they “Opt Out,” what will they offer as a alternative option for our State and its citizens? Canadians finally got single payer health care coverage by their Provinces voting in overwhelming numbers for a Provincial single payer plan. Finally, the National Government in Canada was forced to offer a National Single Payer System. It took them many years, but it did work in the final.
I shudder to think what the Senate Bill is going to look like. Will it rigidly enforce the few positives we have been offered in the House Bill….no “preexisting conditions” allowed to deny coverage, an attempt to reign in and standardize the “pay outs” for fees, services and drugs to health care providers, etc? Or will Harry Reid and his Senate “club” members send the President a bill that will, once again, feed the profits of the Health Care Industry while robbing Americans….and will the President sign it into law?
Gracedesigns13
November 9th, 2009 at 11:42 am
All of these questions, good ones, can’t be answered yet, but here’s my late morning reaction over coffee…
First and foremost, if Obama does not get a “win” on national public health care reform, we may end up with Sarah Palin for president in three years. So for practical political considerations, we must get a plan of some kind passed. It seems to me the most important thing, for the health care system and the economy, is to get everyone covered. My understanding is the current bill ties payments to income, so just like Medicare, poor people would pay almost nothing.
I think the opt out for states is a political bean bag and should be fought in the Senate. Since Ron Sparks seems to be the only candidate for governor in Alabama who favors national public health care, he would be the most approachable here. As the folks on this list probably agree, none of the Republicans running for governor of Alabama could or would be for it nationally or here, and if one of them is elected (because the wrong Democrat wins the primary) this state would probably take the opt out.
There are a couple of stories on the news page today to consider.
http://www.locustfork.net/
One, some progressive Democrats are going to try to fight the amendment outlawing the funding for abortions in the plan. I say the left needs to get off the abortion issue. It is too controversial anyway and funding abortions in the bill would kill the plan.
And Dennis Kucinich makes his case for why he voted against the bill.
http://www.locustfork.net/#region
While I agree with him on the type of plan we should have, I suspect he voted against it to make a point, knowing it would pass. Davis seems to have decided to vote against it well before passing it was certain, so one can only assume he did it for fund raising purposes.
I honestly don’t know how anyone calling themselves a progressive Democrat could vote against Obama’s health care bill and the climate change bill and still get any votes in a primary for governor anywhere. But of course this is Alabamaland. I also don’t understand how an anonymous, lefty blog can still support Davis after this. But life is full of mysteries.
I’m told Wayne Flint’s book Poor But Proud has some insights on some of these things. Maybe if anyone here has read it, you could summarize…
GW
November 9th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Even without a health care victory for Obama, it seems to me very unlikely that Sarah Palin could become president of the United States. But stranger birds have flown into that coop, like an unknown former governor of Georgia and a Texas governor who should have opted to return to baseball team management.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
A former Texas governor who should be tried and convicted for war crimes. My next column may be about the difference between Larry Langford’s small time crimes and Bush’s great big crimes. Langford’s story has been selling newspapers in Alabama for a couple of years now, while none of the papers in Alabama have paid any attention on the front page to Bush’s crimes. I doubt if there was a single front page AP story in six years pointing out there was no WMD in Iraq, no connection between Sadaam and Osama. Nor has there been a single story about how many people have died as a result of that corrupt war, or how much money was stolen from U.S. taxpayers in Iraq.
The Republicans want to scream about the deficit now that a black Democrat is in the White House. Where were they when their Republican president was running up the biggest budget deficits in U.S. history? Where did all that tax money for rebuilding Iraq — and New Orleans — go? Where did Sadaam’s gold go? Is the U.S. news media even asking? Not that I can tell. Is there a single newspaper in Alabama interested? No! They just continue to make fun of the black mayor of Birmingham, the one guy in town with an idea in his head…
November 9th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Via e-mail, a letter to Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who voted against the bill:
What a terrible mistake! Voting NO was a great mistake on your part, no matter what your arcane and mostly unreadable “statement” said. I was a big fan. Positioning yourself with a NO vote on health-care was something an insensitive and unsensible man would do, and your reasons for voting this way are lost in the shuffle. You’ve become what you were fighting against all this time. I suppose if you get Cheney in jail for his serial crimes, you might get me to believe in you again. Otherwise….
Rowland Scherman
November 9th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
A reply from the Kicinich campaign:
Dear Rowland,
Thank you for your comments.
While I do not speak for Dennis, I can tell you that I definitely support his NO vote on the health care bill, H R 3962. I have been working for years to get universal, not for profit, single payer health care for all. H R 3962 is not about that type of health care. It is about keeping insurance companies in control of health care. That is not any true change at all and certainly not change we can believe in.
Health care belongs to “we the people.” We the people are the government. We have let corporations take our government away from us. That must stop. No true change will happen in this country until more Congress members can show the courage that I see time after time in Congressman Dennis Kucinich.
In hope and peace,
Gail Heyn
Volunteer
Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee
http://www.kucinich.us/