House passes Healthcare Reform Bill

In the face of near-unanimous Republican opposition and a last-ditch effort to change the bill, the US House of Representatives late Saturday night voted 220 to 215 in favor of legislation to overhaul the nation's healthcare system. Thirty-nine of the body's 258 Democratic members — many from conservative districts in the South — joined their GOP House colleagues in opposing the measure, a $1.1 trillion compromise bill that has aroused deep passions on both sides of the aisle, as well as beyond the halls of Congress.

In a statement issued from Camp David shortly after the vote, President Barack Obama, who had visited House Democrats earlier in the day, said, "Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people."

For her part, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she was "proud" of House members who stood steadfast against overwhelming GOP opposition. "When we can't find common ground, we have to stand our ground," she said at a news briefing following passage of the legislation, which garnered just one Republican vote, that of Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-LA).

But House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH), whose GOP substitute plan went down to defeat shortly before the historic vote, vowed to continue the fight. "I came here to renew the American Dream, so my kids and their kids have the same opportunities I had. I came here to fight big-government monstrosities like this bill that dim the light of freedom and diminish opportunity for future generations. Our plan will lower premiums by up to 10%, making health care more affordable for families and small businesses. That's what the American people want, and that's what Republicans will continue to fight for."

Action now turns to the Senate, where leaders are working to merge bills from that body's Health Committee and Finance Committee. Like the House-passed bill, the Senate Health Committee's proposal includes a public-plan option, a new government insurance plan that would compete with private plans in the marketplace and be authorized to negotiate rates with physicians and hospitals. The Finance Committee proposal, in contrast, would create state-level private, nonprofit, consumer-run insurance cooperatives, which liberals in the Senate, including West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller, say are fatally flawed.

But to overcome a 60-vote hurdle — the number of votes Democrats would need to cut off a GOP filibuster that some conservative Democrats have threatened to join — Senate Democrats who favor the public-plan option may have no choice but to compromise to get any sort of reform legislation through their chamber.

If that happens, and it's still a big if, the next battleground would be the conference committee, where negotiators of both chambers must forge a single piece of legislation acceptable to both sides — and, of course, to the President.

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Journalist
Wayne Guglielmo
Wayne Guglielmo is a freelance writer for Medscape.