House Passes Health Reform Bill

Sat. November 07, 2009; Posted: 11:32 PM

In a vote of 220 to 215, the Democrats passed the $1.2 trillion measure designed to expand coverage for the uninsured, promote competition in the insurance industry and establish a government-run alternative to private insurance companies.

A bloc of 39 Democrats defected, joining all but one of the Republicans in voting against the measure.

House Democrats hailed the passage, erupting into cheers as the measure received its 218th vote, enough for a bare majority, and again once the vote was closed

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House majority leader, said it would greatly improve the health care of Americans by barring insurance companies from stripping coverage or denying policies based on pre-existing conditions.

"I want to say to every American facing down illness: never again will you be denied coverage because you have diabetes or asthma, or because you are pregnant, or because you have anything else your insurer decides is a 'pre-existing condition,'" Hoyer said. "Never again will your coverage run outâ??nor will you find that coverage you thought you paid for was actually not there at all."

He added, "Never again can insurance companies drive out competition and set premiums as high as they like - because there will be a public insurance option and a transparent marketplace to keep them honest."

Hoyer also stressed that the measure would help middle-class families keep their insurance even if they change jobs, and protect Medicare for seniors.

"To every American who is rightly worried about our mounting deficits and debt, I can tell you this: this bill does not add to the deficit over the next ten years, and is likely to reduce deficits further in the next decade" he said. "This bill means health care that is more fiscally sustainable, for years to come."

He continued, "There are few moments when we have the opportunity to do so much good with one vote. This is one of those moments - I urge my colleagues to rise to it."

However, House Republicans railed against the measure, calling it a massive government intrusion that would ultimately lead to government bureaucrats making health care decisions. Some even raised the prospect of sending those who don't buy insurance for themselves to jail.

In sometimes heated rhetoric, Republicans labeled the measure as an assault on freedom that would "kill jobs" and result in higher insurance premiums, according to Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

"This program that the Speaker is trying to ram through Congress today - on Saturday - will do just that," he said. "It will kill jobs. It will raise insurance premiums for Americans."

He added, "Job-killing mandates in it. Big cuts to Medicare. Exactly the kinds of things that the American people don't want."

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., trumpeted the bipartisan nature of the opposition to the bill.

"People have a grave concern about what Washington is doing to them, not for them," he said. "There are two very distinct visions of the way forward for this country as far as health care is concerned. There is one version that will be a massive overhaul and remake the health care that we know into a system that we don't."

He added, "There's another version that takes a much more reasoned and smart approach to preserving what works in the system while trying to address what doesn't."

The bill also contains a measure enacting severe restrictions aimed at preventing federal funds being used to pay for abortions.

The provision, which was enacted by a vote of 240 to 194, with 64 pro-life Democrats joining Republicans to add the amendment to the bill, bars the government-run public insurance option from paying for abortions.

One Republican, Rep. John Shadegg of Arizona, voted present in hopes that his Republican colleagues would follow suit, allowing the amendment to fail and imperiling the passage of the bill as a whole.

It also bars anyone receiving federal subsidies for their insurance from buying an insurance plan that covers abortion, though those people and those in the public option are free to purchase insurance riders to cover abortion or pay for the procedures with their own money.

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