Truesee's Daily Wonder

Truesee presents the weird, wild, wacky and world news of the day.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

 

Congress Passes Final Piece of Healthcare Legislation

Congress Passes Final Piece of Healthcare Legislation

Noam N. Levey

Washington DC Bureau

March 25, 2010

After a final surge to overcome Republican opposition, Congressional Democrats Thursday approved the last piece of their health overhaul, sending President Obama a package of changes to the main health bill the president signed Tuesday.

The so-called reconciliation package, which also includes a major reorganization of the federal student loan program, passed the Senate Thursday afternoon 56-43 on a nearly party-line vote after a grueling night and day of roll-call votes during which Republicans sought to derail the bill.

Later Thursday evening, House Democrats approved the same package 220 to 207 and formally concluded Democrats' tortuous 14-month drive to move major healthcare legislation through Congress for the first time in nearly half a century.

"More than 80 years ago, Franklin Roosevelt identified four freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom from want and freedom from fear," said Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), one of the architects of the healthcare overhaul.

"Today in many ways we are fulfilling that last of the great freedoms, the fear that you or your family could suffer a health-care crisis."

The president, who traveled to Iowa Thursday to tout the healthcare overhaul, is expected to the sign the legislation in the next several days.

Paralleling earlier healthcare votes this year, not a single Republican voted for the final package in the House or Senate.

Many GOP lawmakers have criticized the legislation as an unwarranted expansion of federal authority over the healthcare sector. And Thursday, Republicans kept up their call to roll back the legislation, previewing a debate that is expected to only intensify as election day approaches this fall.

"The important thing now … is to replace those who voted for the healthcare bill and to repeal it when we get some new members here," Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity Thursday.

Three Senate Democrats and 32 House Democrats also voted against the package Thursday, including several facing difficult reelection campaigns in traditionally Republican states such as Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

The bill required only a simple majority in the Senate because Democrats used the budget reconciliation process to avoid a filibuster, which requires a 60-vote supermajority to squash.

The 153-page reconciliation package represents a small fraction of the gargantuan healthcare legislation that the House approved over the weekend and the president signed Tuesday.

But it makes several major changes to the main healthcare bill, including expanding subsidies that the federal government will provide to low- and moderate-income Americans starting in 2014 to help them buy health insurance.

The package also scales back a new 40% excise tax on high-end "Cadillac" health plans and delays its implementation until 2018.

It imposes a new tax on couples making more than $250,000, who will pay a 3.8% Medicare tax on capital gains and other investment income for the first time.

The bill boosts federal aid to states to help them expand their Medicaid programs, replacing a provision in the main healthcare bill that singled out Nebraska for special assistance.

And it would gradually close the gap in Medicare drug coverage known as the "doughnut hole," phasing it out completely by 2020.

Together, the healthcare legislation signed by the president and the reconciliation package approved Thursday are expected to cover an additional 32 million Americans by 2019, boosting the percentage of non-elderly Americans with insurance from 83% to 94%, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The bill also establishes a broad new framework of government regulation to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people who are sick and to require insurers to provide a minimal level of benefits.

The coverage expansion would not be cheap, requiring an estimated $938 billion over the next decade to expand Medicaid, to give tax credits to small businesses to help them cover their employees and to provide insurance subsidies to Americans who do not get benefits at work.

Most Americans will for the first time be required to carry health insurance or pay a penalty.

Because the cost of the expanding coverage is offset by new taxes and cuts in what Medicare will pay insurers, hospitals and other providers over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation will actually reduce the deficit slightly by 2019 by an estimated $143 billion.

Republicans have repeatedly criticized the new taxes and Medicare cuts.

And over a day and half of almost continuous voting on amendment, GOP senators tried to get Democrats to remove sections of the bill designed to raise revenue to pay for the legislation.

In the end, however, it was a provision of the bill unrelated to healthcare that almost tripped up the legislation.

The reconciliation bill includes a major change in the way the federal government helps students pay for college, giving the government authority to provide loans directly to students, instead of using private financial institutions as intermediaries. The student loan section of the legislation would use part of the projected savings from this change to expand the federal Pell Grant program for low-income students.

But very early Thursday morning, Republicans successfully objected to a minor provision designed to prevent the Pell Grants from decreasing in periods of deflation. The provision did not reduce the deficit, as required by the budget rules.

That forced Democrats to change the package, which in turn forced the House to take it up Thursday even though the House had approved an earlier version Sunday.

A spokeswoman for the House Education and Labor Committee said Democrats may add the provision to future legislation in the future if there are any signs of deflation.


Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

Archives

March 2024   February 2024   January 2024   December 2023   November 2023   October 2023   September 2023   August 2023   July 2023   June 2023   May 2023   April 2023   March 2023   February 2023   January 2023   December 2022   November 2022   October 2022   September 2022   August 2022   July 2022   June 2022   May 2022   April 2022   March 2022   February 2022   January 2022   December 2021   November 2021   October 2021   September 2021   August 2021   July 2021   June 2021   May 2021   April 2021   March 2021   February 2021   January 2021   December 2020   November 2020   October 2020   September 2020   August 2020   July 2020   June 2020   May 2020   April 2020   March 2020   February 2020   January 2020   December 2019   November 2019   October 2019   September 2019   August 2019   July 2019   June 2019   May 2019   April 2019   March 2019   February 2019   January 2019   December 2018   November 2018   October 2018   September 2018   August 2018   July 2018   June 2018   May 2018   April 2018   March 2018   February 2018   January 2018   December 2017   November 2017   October 2017   September 2017   August 2017   July 2017   June 2017   May 2017   April 2017   March 2017   February 2017   January 2017   December 2016   November 2016   October 2016   September 2016   August 2016   July 2016   June 2016   May 2016   April 2016   March 2016   February 2016   January 2016   December 2015   November 2015   October 2015   September 2015   August 2015   July 2015   June 2015   May 2015   April 2015   March 2015   February 2015   January 2015   December 2014   November 2014   October 2014   September 2014   August 2014   July 2014   June 2014   May 2014   April 2014   March 2014   February 2014   January 2014   December 2013   November 2013   October 2013   September 2013   August 2013   July 2013   June 2013   May 2013   April 2013   March 2013   February 2013   January 2013   December 2012   November 2012   October 2012   September 2012   August 2012   July 2012   June 2012   May 2012   April 2012   March 2012   February 2012   January 2012   December 2011   November 2011   October 2011   September 2011   August 2011   July 2011   June 2011   May 2011   April 2011   March 2011   February 2011   January 2011   December 2010   November 2010   October 2010   September 2010   August 2010   July 2010   June 2010   May 2010   April 2010   March 2010   February 2010   January 2010   December 2009   November 2009   October 2009   September 2009   August 2009   July 2009   June 2009   May 2009   April 2009   March 2009   February 2009   January 2009   December 2008  

Powered by Lottery PostSyndicated RSS FeedSubscribe