Late on Sunday night (later than I wanted to stay up, anyway) the House passed both the Senate healthcare reform legislation and the House bundle of fixes. The entire package is on its way to Obama’s desk for signature. So what now? Brace yourself …
Here’s the link to the full text of the reconciliation bill, hot off the presses. Basically, the House will vote on these bundled fixes to the Senate bill, deeming that the Senate bill itself has already passed. Too bad employment raises don’t work the same way, eh?
Want more information? Head to the House site for a section-by-section look, Committee reports etc. See The Wonk Room’s comparison of this bill with the previous Senate and House bills. Check Kaiser Health News’ report on the 9 major changes in the reconciliation bill versus prior bills.
Many of us acknowledge that the passage of HR 3962 last Saturday was not an altogether positive thing. The bill does provide consumer protections not currently available, and will expand coverage to many currently uninsured. But it also mandates a captive market for private insurers and provides an exceptionally weak public option that’s expected to cover 2% of the population and cost more than outrageously expensive private coverage. Worst of all, Stupak’s last minute amendment strikes down women’s rights as a trade-off for universal healthcare coverage. It’s ugly. Not as ugly, however, as the Republican lies that tried to defeat it.
Read more here, and watch the video!
Nancy Pelosi couldn’t have announced the new House healthcare reform bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act (HR 3962), with any more pomp and circumstance. It was certainly more impressive than the Senate’s mouse-like rollout, apparently intended to avoid rubbing salt in the Baucus “bipartisanship” wound.
HR 3962 is definitely a major milestone in attempting to reform our broken system-less healthcare; it’s historic, certainly. But no, it’s not the best our legislators could do. Learn the 8 things you should know, good and bad, about the bill here.
If you want to read a 4-page summary of the bill, get it here. If you are really ambitious and want to read the entire 1,990 pages, download the bill here. For further exploration, head to the Committee on Education and Labor’s HR 3962 site.
Want to know how this bill compares to others in the legislative pipeline? See Kaiser Family Foundation’s (no relation to Kaiser Permanente) Side-By-Side Comparison Tool. This easy to use, regularly updated tool lets you select which bills to compare, and what features to compare them on. Much better than wading through legalese! blogsurfer.us
