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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@TJ
He gets like that when he’s pwned. Small business will be the test of this. Innovation and leadership comes from the small business sector. If it makes it easier to run a business like yours, then it worked. If it makes it worse, then it failed.
“…biggest victory yet for Democrats…”
Really? Only 219 democrats out of 258 is not a major victory, it’s a petty passage.
If the Senate passes their version, and if it gets out of the conference committee, how many of the 219 will still vote, “Aye”.
Save the “victory” talk until then…
# 79
Well said Comrade.
#79, Why you would sacrifice others to save your wife?
#80, Hard to lose an argument when I’m not in an argument with him. Until he answers the question, he is just typing to the wind.
But, I do have a question for you —
If someone else’s small business would be worse off with the new law but yours would be better off, would you support it?
#81, Actually, if you’ll notice, I haven’t responded to anything Poison Twin has drooled toward me since he backed out of his deal to answer why he would sacrifice others to save his wife, if I would answer it first.
The man’s a liar.
Awful lot of Chicken Littles here.
Seems that most people that have actually lived under the US system and some of those other, evil ‘socialist’ systems prefer the other ones.
I think it’s time for us to join the rest of Western civilization.
I have a hunch that the US will still exist in 2014. As a matter of fact, I would put money on it. Dollars, euros, or Ameros for you crackpots out there.
To those liberals out there, why are we taxing everyone at 2.5%? Why doesn’t this tax only apply to the “rich”? Why are you not pushing to have the rich pay for everyone’s health care? By the liberal’s logic, if I do not want to pay for health care insurance, some rich bastard somewhere else should pay an extra 2.5% right?
As LibertyLover said, so much for not raising taxes on people making less than $250K a year.
It’s funny to listen to you all whine about mandating health insurance.
How many of you will forgo Medicare when the time comes?
I’m willing to be it’s a big fat 0 of you.
Put up or shut up.
Is this going to pinch your wallet? Yea, maybe. How much? If you’ve got insurance from your employer it’s not going to do anything to you, unless you’re making over $400,000 a year and even then it’s less than 1% tax. Read the bill.
If you’re self-employed it’s likely going to benefit you as it’s likely to bring some real competition into the insurance market. Honestly, people. Read the bill.
If you’re uninsured you’re either going to be mandated to buy insurance or pay a fine. How much? $1,500 to $3,500 / year depending on your marital status, number of dependents. Read the bill.
If you’re uninsured and you want insurance there will be legit options for you either to get insurance from a private provider or through a public option. Read the bill.
If you want to go without insurance that’s your choice, but there’s a tax on that. And if you go out and get hit by a bus then you can foot the bill for your hospital stay.
Get a grip people. Read the bill.
#89 “Read the Bill”
Thanks for the lecture. Very satisfied with yourself aren’t you? Every topic needs a pompous ass pontificating on it and you certainly seem to qualify.
BTW, there is no need for me to read the bill that is what our glorious leaders in congress are for. I am sure they have nothing but our best interest in mind.
#89, I have something else for you to read.
http://earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/constitution/text.html
Mandating this is not Constitutional.
But that doesn’t matter. People think this is a democracy and not a republic.
Sad.
It’s a pointless debate, anyway, since the Senate has already declared the House bill DOA. One such report is here: http://tiny.cc/jz7GV
Given your interest, you might want to check out the http://lastingliberty.com/ piece on the healthcare debate : Bigger Than Healthcare
I just heard that it passed the US House with only two votes to spare. Now either that news source was wrong, can’t count, or your source is wrong. I really don’t care. But it shows that you can trust the damn press to get even the simplest details right.
The best way to have universal coverage is to FORCE POOR UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE to buy health insurance!
And that’s what this plan is.
What could possibly go wrong?
#84, Loser,
#79, Why you would sacrifice others to save your wife?
Have you stopped masturbating in public yet?
#96, Sigh. Trying to change the subject again, I see.
Why you would sacrifice others to save your wife?
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?