The health care reform bill passed the House and was signed into law by President Barack Obama this morning. There is much background news, ups and downs, the determination of some and display of ugliness by others in the run up to this historic event. Here are some of the principle features of the bill and how it came to pass.
The short and long term implications the bill:
THIS YEAR
_ Sets up a high-risk health insurance pool to provide affordable coverage for uninsured people with medical problems.
_ Starting six months after enactment, requires all health insurance plans to maintain dependent coverage for children until they turn 26.
_ For children with medical problems, prohibits insurers from writing a policy that excludes payment for the particular condition. Insurers in the individual market could still deny new coverage to children in poor health.
_ Bars insurance companies from putting lifetime dollar limits on coverage, and canceling policies except for fraud.
_ Provides tax credits to help small businesses with up to 25 employees get and keep coverage for their employees.
_ Begins narrowing the Medicare prescription coverage gap by providing a $250 rebate to seniors in the gap, which starts this year once they have spent $2,830. It would be fully closed by 2020.
_ Reduces projected Medicare payments to hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes, hospices and other providers.
_ Imposes 10 percent sales tax on indoor tanning. (The rest here)
Mommy Care, not Kiddie Care : Speaker Nancy Pelosi's role in the health care overhaul:
WASHINGTON – The landmark health care bill about to be signed into law is as large as it is due in no small part to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's stewardship. When Democrats in Congress and the White House were despondent and inclined to retreat on health care just two months ago, Pelosi stood firm against despair and downsizing.
As a result, she could emerge from the yearlong struggle among the most powerful speakers in history…
"'We are not kicking this can down the road,'" Pelosi told Obama by phone last month just before their seven-hour televised health care conference, according to Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York and three other officials who heard the call.
It was an abrupt reminder to those on the White House end of the line: Whatever is said at the big bipartisan meeting, there would be no substantive rewrite of the bill as Republicans were demanding. Obama said he understood and agreed: They were moving in one direction only, toward passage. And soon….
When Democrats panicked after Republican Scott Brown won Edward Kennedy's Senate seat, Pelosi rebuffed feelers by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and others for a smaller version of the bill. She dismissed that approach as incrementalism and derisively dubbed it, "kiddie care."
The bitter reaction of the "Just Say No" Republicans:
As jubilant Democrats prepared for President Obama to sign their landmark health care legislation in a big ceremony at the White House, Republicans opened a campaign on Monday to repeal the legislation and to use it as a weapon in this year’s hotly contested midterm elections.
“We will not allow this to stand,” Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, promised Monday afternoon as the House reconvened, a day after the bitterly partisan vote. …
Around the country, reaction to the bill’s passage was emotional, and in some cases violent.
Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, said her Tucson office was vandalized after her vote in support of the measure. A glass door was shattered, she said.
After a weekend when protesters outside the Capitol subjected some Democratic lawmakers to racial slurs and other epithets, Representative Randy Neugebauer, a conservative Republican from Texas, revealed on Monday that he was the lawmaker who shouted “baby killer” on the House floor Sunday night as Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan, discussed abortion-related provisions in the health care bill.
In a statement, Mr. Neugebauer, a three-term member of the House from Lubbock, said he got caught up in the passions of the moment and was not referring to Mr. Stupak personally but to the bill itself.
“In the heat and emotion of the debate, I exclaimed the phrase ‘it’s a baby killer’ in reference to the agreement reached by the Democratic leadership,” Mr. Neugebauer said. “I deeply regret that my actions were mistakenly interpreted as a direct reference to Congressman Stupak himself.” (But he is now raising money based on the same outburst)
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