Health care bill gets stamp of approval from U.S. House

The U.S. House of Representatives approved health care reform legislation by a 219 to 212 vote Sunday— a landmark move after months of contentious debate.

Thirty-eight House Democrat “no” votes were needed to kill the vote that ultimately approved the health care reform plan the U.S. Senate had on Dec. 24, 2009. The Senate’s original bill will now go to President Barack Obama’s desk to be signed into law.

Despite the Democrats’ push, Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, maintained the legislature is detrimental to the nation’s finances.

“We simply cannot afford to create a new federal bureaucracy,” he said, near the debate’s end Sunday night. “This is not the right bill for America. It costs $1 trillion and raises half $1 trillion in taxes.”

The up-or-down vote to approve the Senate’s version of the bill was immediately followed with a vote on the House reconciliation bill, which also was approved. The reconciliation bill aimed to couple student aid reform into the health care legislature.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the reconciliation bill drafted by the House Democrats will cost $940 billion over the next 10 years and cuts the deficit by $138 billion during that period of time, according to published reports.
Jayne Cherie Strachan, assistant political science professor, said since legislation must pass both houses in the exact same version, a joint reconciliation subcommittee will have to iron out the differences between the senate version and the house reconciliation version.

The health care reform legislation extends coverage to 32 million Americans, bans insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and mandates insurance companies cover young adults under their parents’ plans until age 26, among other initiatives.

“There won’t be this big fight about proving you’re in college or the number of credits or all that sort of stuff,” Strachan said. “Most students will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance.”

She said solving the health care crisis could solve young people’s insurance problems. She cited a Pew Research Center study that reported “the millennial generation is 33 percent uninsured.”

“That’s college students,” Strachan said.

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College Democrats President Brad O’Donnell said the senate’s bill is much like a patient’s bill of rights.

The Clinton Township junior said though he likes the fact individuals can no longer be denied coverage if they have pre-existing conditions and tax credits are available for certain low income citizens, he wishes there was a public option.

“You have to have some sort of competition with the other health insurance industries in order for the cost to go down and if there isn’t a public option, then there is no mechanism for controlling costs,” O’Donnell said.

College Republicans Vice Chair John Porter fundamentally disagrees.

“It’s a giant takeover in a sector we as Republicans feel that we want to keep safe from government gridlock,” the Coleman sophomore said, commenting on the Senate’s version of the bill. “We think decisions should be made between doctors and patients, not doctors, patients and the government.”

According to published reports, Republicans largely argue the passage of the health care legislation allows the government to take over the private insurance system, claiming it means higher premiums and taxes for middle class families.

But O’Donnell said there are just cost-saving mechanisms in place now to control the cost of systems like Medicare. There are no new taxes for middle-class Americans, she said, and since the government is expected to save money with the new legislation, the U.S. couldn’t afford not to pass the health reform legislation.

Strachan said passing health care reform legislation is historic for individuals on the left of the political spectrum since they’ve “been pushing for some sort of program to cover most Americans since the 1930s.”