Community | October 29, 2009 | 29 comments

House Democrats Unveil Sweeping Health Reform Bill

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33531099/ns/politics-health_care_reform/?ns=politics-health_care...

Image
current89

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33531099/ns/politics-health_care_reform/?...

WASHINGTON - The retooled health care overhaul plan that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled Thursday would extend coverage to millions and lets the government sell insurance in competition with private insurers.

Pelosi, D-Calif., wants to have the legislation on the floor next week, with a final vote before Veterans Day, Nov. 11, that would give Obama a bill to sign by year's end, numerous Democratic officials said.

She made a formal announcement of the bill Thursday in front of the Capitol.

The bill would require nearly everyone by 2013 to sign up for health coverage either through their employer, a government program or a new kind of purchasing pool called an exchange. Tax credits would be available for most of those buying coverage through the exchange. They would have the option of picking a new government plan or private insurance.

During the transition years from 2010-2013, a temporary government program would help people turned down by private insurers because of medical problems, lawmakers said. After that, insurers no longer could refuse to provide coverage to the sick, nor could they charge more because of poor health of the insured.

The plan also calls for a significant expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people. And it would impose a requirement on employers to offer insurance to their workers or face penalties.

A concession to Democratic moderates appears to have cleared a path for Pelosi to move forward. Democratic leaders agreed to the moderates' demand that the new government insurance plan must negotiate payment levels with hospitals and doctors, instead of imposing its rates, as liberal lawmakers would have preferred.

"This has always been a matter of trying to pull together 218 votes," said Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., referring to the number needed to guarantee passage on the House floor. "There is growing confidence that we can pass it with strong Democratic support."

end of excerpt
Source: MSNBC
  1. groups:
    Community,   Current Tonight,   US Politics,   Healthcare,   5 more
  2. tags:
  3. recommended by:
    current89
  4.     
    |

29 comments // House Democrats Unveil Sweeping Health Reform Bill

  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  

    • I prefer a single payer plan like Kucinich HR676, but this bill I can live with. At least it puts the breaks on the Insurance Mafia.

    • 3 years ago
  • JonRaymond
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • Image

    • http://current.com/items/91314785_micheal-berry-speaks-to-disenchanted-supporter...

      Obama is not sitting pretty with certain people that had voted for him. But that's not going to be shared in honesty because who really shares that they made a mistake in voting and actually says why? These people do.

      They had it in the bag, democrats, and now they just are politically bleeding all over the place and slowly (and annoyingly) they are dying.

      America is not the world and therefore cannot be handled as one would handle other countries. The idea that America is full of stupid people is only amped up by the bias and fearful polls that people create to control.

      Congress acts like it has unlimited moments of mistakes. Republicans found out that that is not the case...they were hit hard and now are trying to fight their way back in any way they deem necessary. The democrats are about to find out the same thing.

      Pride before the fall. All this prideful talk on the floor about what they have and how the American people want it via this poll or that poll and not actually listening to what is wanted is screwing them up.

      As stands now there will STILL be people without insurance.

    • 3 years ago
  • libertyforall
    • 0
      libertyforall  

    • "It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is will be tomorrow."
      -- James Madison, Federalist no. 62, February 27, 1788

    • 3 years ago
  • jubal
  • libertyforall
  • sugarlilly
  • current89
  • emarston
  • thewarnerla
  • Kay_Bee
  • JonRaymond
    • 0
      JonRaymond  
    • Kay_Bee:

      I'm not too sure about 99% of it. The public option was written by and for the insurance industry by lobbyists. One thing you can bet on, it requires people to buy insurance, guaranteed customers for insurance companies that can't make an honest living selling a product that people actually need.

    • 3 years ago
  • derk
    • 0
      derk  

    • Over one hundred and twenty people die each day in America without Any insurance. Hundreds of others die due to lack of health coverage that are insured. Stop the madness!!!! Stop defending companies that turn profits by DENIYING PEOPLE CARE. Honestly, if you don't believe in a public option and reform then you are a heartless and stupid.Yeah, I said it. You are stupid.

    • 3 years ago
  • JonRaymond
  • mjseydel
  • Maitereya
  • JonRaymond
  • current89
  • JonRaymond
  • FlexSF
    • 0
      FlexSF  

    • Sign me up. I'll gladly begin making payments on the public option, even if I don't have access too it. I want to help make it work!

    • 3 years ago
  • current89
  • FishaHouse777
    • 0
      FishaHouse777  

    • Seems like a perfectly good and secure bill, let's hope it stays this way and is actually implemented like it's suppossed to be.
      First Health Care Rform, next the legalization of marijuana and other drugs, and then the end of the war on terror and reform of the patriot act, imminent domain, and the death tax. If all the above go through I will personally be happy and content living in America (which i'm not right now)

    • 3 years ago
  • fun_size
  • neocongo
    • 0
      neocongo  

    • This is the bill we want. But thanks to Senate Blue Dogs and the insurance industry, we will most likely get something much weaker. Were it up to the Republicans, maybe an aspirin and a "God Bless America!"

    • 3 years ago
  • Chique
    • 0
      Chique  

    • Looks like we're moving in the right direction - - and the antitrust exemptions are key! Now we await the votes and see who supports the public and who supports their campaign donors.

    • 3 years ago
  • current89
    • 0
      current89  

    • "One change expected to be revealed Thursday is that some of the benefits in the bill, which mostly were set to take effect in 2013, have been moved up so that Americans would see the benefits of the legislation more quickly, according to Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami.

      Pelosi has also said the bill would strip the health insurance industry of a long-standing exemption from antitrust laws covering market allocation, price fixing and bid rigging. Democratic officials said the bill also would give the Federal Trade Commission authority to look into the health insurance industry at its own initiative."

    • 3 years ago
  • FishaHouse777
more from Community:
from the community

top videos