Historic Day for Healthcare (??) -- the House Votes Tonight

[D_Ireonsyd_Colonrinse]

monet:

The House bill that passed tonight is the blending together of 3 House healthcare bills from 3 different committees.

This is a victory, and historic, because heathcare reform has been attempted in various forms in this country for almost a century. It's been killed each time.


From Salon.com:

Universal healthcare has bedeviled, eluded or defeated every president for the last 75 years. Franklin Roosevelt left it out of Social Security because he was afraid it would be too complicated and attract fierce resistance. Harry Truman fought like hell for it but ultimately lost. Dwight Eisenhower reshaped the public debate over it. John Kennedy was passionate about it. Lyndon Johnson scored the first and last major victory on the road toward achieving it. Richard Nixon devised the essential elements of all future designs for it. Jimmy Carter tried in vain to re-engineer it. The first George Bush toyed with it. Bill Clinton lost it and then never mentioned it again. George W. expanded it significantly, but only for retirees.

All the while, the ideal of universal care has revolved around two poles. In the 1930s, liberals imagined a universal right to healthcare tied to compulsory insurance, like Social Security. Johnson based Medicare on this idea, and it survives today as the “single-payer model” of universal healthcare, or “Medicare for all."

Healthcare Reform - Salon.com



Every succeeding step now is a victory, is historic, because we've never gotten so far. Usually these reforms don't even make it out of committee; they're killed (that's why the senate bill making it out of Max Bauchus' conservative Finance Committee was a big deal).

So, next, two Senate bills are being fused into one, and they'll vote on it. After that, the House bill and the Senate bill will be blended and vote on. Then to the President.


There are still enough steps remaining in this legislative process that we'll see many more Tea party protests (replete with Obama/Joker/Hitler signs & funny American Revolution hats), Michele Bachmann gaffes, and enough Hannity-Beck-Limbaugh rants to shake a stick at.

 

[jason_els]

Yeah, it's not over until the fat lady sings (Obama signs the damn thing). There are still pitfalls aplenty not the least of which is getting the Senate and House bills to agree with enough votes to support what gets finalized.

 

[B_Nick8]

It next will go to the Senate where it will be put to a vote there. A simple majority is all that's needed to pass the bill. If there is a tie (as there are 100 voting Senators) then the Vice President, in his dual role as President of the Senate, casts the tie-breaking vote. The VP is not obligated to vote the way the President would necessarily like him to because the VP is a separately-elected official and does not answer to the President. Legislation that requires spending requires origination in the House. It is expected the Senate will pass this version. Then the bill will go to the President to sign. He can sign it, let it sit on his desk (a pocket veto), or veto it outright. Congress can then override the veto if it passes by a 2/3 majority in both houses. It is expected Obama will sign the bill.

I love you, darling, but sometimes you are pedantic in the extreme. Do you think you are lecturing a group of middle schoolers?

 

[Principessa]

Now time to reform the hospitals, doctors, and drug companies.

Baby steps Guy-Jin, it took us almost 100 years to get this far. :frown1: Maybe they'll tackle the drug companies next.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

It next will go to the Senate where it will be put to a vote there. A simple majority is all that's needed to pass the bill. If there is a tie (as there are 100 voting Senators) then the Vice President, in his dual role as President of the Senate, casts the tie-breaking vote. The VP is not obligated to vote the way the President would necessarily like him to because the VP is a separately-elected official and does not answer to the President. Legislation that requires spending requires origination in the House. It is expected the Senate will pass this version. Then the bill will go to the President to sign. He can sign it, let it sit on his desk (a pocket veto), or veto it outright. Congress can then override the veto if it passes by a 2/3 majority in both houses. It is expected Obama will sign the bill.

Thank you Mrs. Steinberg. Your nose is leaking a bit. Take some of those Kleenex out of your sleeve and wipe it.

 

[D_Ireonsyd_Colonrinse]

I can't wait until Glenn Beck rants and rants about Pelosi's governmental takeover of healthcare!... as he looks into the camera, gets misty-eyed while talking about the Founding Fathers and their supposed opposition to Obamacare... and cries.


Somebody will post Beck's crying onto youtube. VinylBoy will find it & link it for us here. Then, we all get to comment on Beck.


It's like a circle. There's such symmetry in all of this.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

I can't wait until Glenn Beck rants and rants about Pelosi's governmental takeover of healthcare!... as he looks into the camera, gets misty-eyed while talking about the Founding Fathers and their supposed opposition to Obamacare... and cries.


Somebody will post Beck's crying onto youtube. VinylBoy will find it & link it for us here. Then, we all get to comment on Beck.


It's like a circle. There's such symmetry in all of this.

You mean Nancy Lugosi?

 

[jason_els]

I love you, darling, but sometimes you are pedantic in the extreme. Do you think you are lecturing a group of middle schoolers?

No. Not everyone knows how the process works and there are many non-Americans here who I wouldn't expect to know.

 

[D_Davy_Downspout]

- 2% of america will be eligible for the public option by 2019
- The public option's premiums will be higher than private insurance premiums
- Everybody else forced to buy private insurance, else risk 2.5% of income garnished per year
- There are no controls on premiums. None. At all. Everybody is being forced to buy private insurance, and there exists not one word in the bill to ensure they will actually lower prices once everybody has bought in.

 

[D_Fiona_Farvel]

^
All open to modification as needed or desired.

 

[D_Davy_Downspout]

^
All open to modification as needed or desired.

Keep in mind, the house is the less conservative body of congress.

 

[D_Fiona_Farvel]

And? Does that have bearing on the fact the bill and/or law can be revised to better reflect the needs/whims of the nation?

 

[B_Marius567]

my insurance premiums better not cost more!!!!! I may just drop my insurance to save money id they do.

 

[slurper_la]

WOW I hope some day to HAVE to wait 3 weeks to see a doctor. Yay! Go new healthcare!

Some Day? That's happening now!

Ever try to get a special test or MRI done? Doctors have to submit all sorts of paperwork to the insurance companies for "permission" to order the test and the requests are more often than not, denied.

 

[slurper_la]

Ok, so now that it has passed the House with 220 votes (only 1 Republican willing to do what's right), what else needs to be done before it gets to President Obama to sign and make law? Anyone know the procedure? I'm reading something about Senate voting and ehhh, I thought the House vote was the big and needed victory before it goes to the White House.

Very clear explanation, Jason. Thank you! So are there more Democratic Senators in the Senate than Republican Senators? Is that why the bill is likely to pass, you say?

Perhaps you're not American but still, have the events of the past five months here not made an impact?

YouTube - Schoolhouse Rock- How a Bill Becomes a Law

 

[deleted213967]

Some Day? That's happening now!

Ever try to get a special test or MRI done? Doctors have to submit all sorts of paperwork to the insurance companies for "permission" to order the test and the requests are more often than not, denied.

Somehow those practices were never known as "Death Panels".

 

[B_Marius567]

you have to wait to 2013 when it kicks in:tongue:

 

[monet]

Perhaps you're not American but still, have the events of the past five months here not made an impact?

YouTube - Schoolhouse Rock- How a Bill Becomes a Law

Because I don't understand the procedure/protocol of how bills become law, does that suggest that I'm a foreigner? I can tell you, with certainty, that there are millions who haven't a clue how the process works--despite how it's covered on the news. I am American and I have been following the debate, but I wanted clarification.

Apparently, by asking a question to better understand an issue suggests ignorance? Pfff, whatever.

 

[HellsKitchenmanNYC]

Some Day? That's happening now!

Ever try to get a special test or MRI done? Doctors have to submit all sorts of paperwork to the insurance companies for "permission" to order the test and the requests are more often than not, denied.

Yes but that's been the norm. Now it will prob take even longer unless yr eyelids are bleeding.

 

[slurper_la]

Because I don't understand the procedure/protocol of how bills become law, does that suggest that I'm a foreigner? I can tell you, with certainty, that there are millions who haven't a clue how the process works--despite how it's covered on the news. I am American and I have been following the debate, but I wanted clarification.

Apparently, by asking a question to better understand an issue suggests ignorance? Pfff, whatever.

Well no, I assumed you might not be because this subject is covered as part of sixth grade civics classes. Anyway that's why I included the link to the ever popular Schoolhouse Rock piece addressing this subject.