Sunday approved sweeping legislation to guarantee Americans access to
medical care for the first time in history and delivered President
The bill, which passed 219-212 without a single Republican vote, will make a nearly
And it will establish a broad new framework of
government regulation to prevent insurance companies from denying
coverage and, advocates hope, to begin making healthcare more
affordable.
“Tonight, at a time when the pundits said it was no
longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics. … We
proved we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling
our biggest challenges,” the president said in a televised address from
the
On the House floor, Democrats erupted into cheers of “Yes, we can!” at
as the decisive 216th “yes” vote was recorded, capping a tortuous
campaign that several senior lawmakers linked to the historic battle
for civil rights two generations earlier.
“This is the civil rights act of the 21st century,” added Rep.
Obama is to sign the bill within the next few days, while the
plans this week to begin debating a package of changes to the health
care legislation that the House also passed Sunday 220-211.
The House roll calls came at the end of a balmy spring weekend that followed an unusually harsh
Angry protesters swarmed over the Capitol lawn
throughout the day, cheering sympathetic Republicans who urged them on
from the House balcony. They called for lawmakers to “Kill the Bill”
and warned of dire political consequences for Democrats who voted for
the legislation. “We will remember in November,” the crowd chanted.
Thirty-four Democrats, most from Republican leaning
districts, voted against the main legislation approving the blueprint
for health care.
Rep.
candidates would turn the 2010 midterm elections into a referendum on
health care. “We will run on a promise of repeal,” he said.
Many Republicans say the overhaul will drive the
nation deeper into a debt at a time when it is still struggling to
recover from recession. “We can’t even afford the government we’ve got
right now, and we’re going to be putting this new … entitlement on
top of it,” Rep.
But after a final flurry of negotiating diffused an
intraparty dispute over abortion and locked down the last votes,
Democratic lawmakers, some of whom have spent decades in
Obama and his congressional allies succeeded in pushing through the most sweeping piece of social legislation since the 1965
Democrats — and the country — now face an uncertain
future as the legislation is implemented over the next decade and the
government begins to play a larger oversight role in matters that touch
powerful industries and personal lives.
Many of the overhaul provisions will not take effect
for years. And even some supporters of the mind-numbingly complex
package acknowledge there is no guarantee it alone can restrain the
skyrocketing cost of health care.
More immediately, Democrats must steer a package of fixes to the health care bill through the
The maneuver allows Senate Democrats to skirt a
filibuster and pass the package with only 51 votes rather than 60. But
if Republicans succeed in making any changes to the package on the
But Sunday, after more than a year of procedural
delays, electoral set-backs, partisan battling — and yet another
nail-biting search for votes — congressional Democrats seemed more
focused more on history than the remaining parliamentary obstacles.
Meeting at midday behind closed doors across the street from the Capitol, they received a final pep talk from Rep.
Lewis reminded the assembled lawmakers Sunday that
they were voting on the 45th anniversary of one of the famous Civil
Rights marches between
After the caucus meeting ended, Lewis linked arms
with Pelosi and other senior Democrats for a walk with the assembled
lawmakers to the Capitol through a gauntlet of angry protesters who
denounced them, shouting “Drop Dead Pelosi” and “Save the Constitution.”
“We’re locking arms behind a man who led a nation
across a bridge … 45 year ago,” Pelosi said. ” And today, he’s going
to lead us across this street and to vote for health care for the
American people.”
Pelosi carried with her an oversized wooden gavel given to her by Rep.
By late afternoon, Democrats cleared away the final obstacle as the
D-Mich.,who had withheld their support over concerns that the
legislation did not sufficiently ensure that federal funding would not
be used for abortion.
Under the terms of the agreement, the president
agreed to issue an executive order directing his administration to
develop guidelines to prohibit the use of taxpayer subsidies to pay for
abortion services.
The order also reinforces restrictions barring
community health centers from using federal funds for abortion
services. The healthcare bill already requires women who buy federally
subsidized insurance plans that cover abortion services to send their
insurer a separate check to cover the abortion benefit.
The executive order drew immediate fire from several
anti-abortion groups, who call it inadequate. “Executive orders can be
undone or modified as quickly as they are created,” warned
But Stupak, flanked by other socially conservative
Democrats, said he was satisfied Sunday with the protections. “We’ve
all stood on principle,” he said.
Later on the House floor, Stupak chided
lawmakers for trying to scuttle the legislation with a procedural
motion build on his abortion compromise. As Stupak was speaking,
someone on the Republican section of chamber yelled “
Several leading religious groups, including the heads of national orders of Catholic sisters, had already endorsed the
The debate over abortion in recent days almost
overshadowed the broad reach of the health care legislation that
Democrats labored to assemble over the last year.
Party leaders designed their health care overhaul to
preserve the employer-based health care system in which most Americans
get insurance through work.
But the legislation would also dramatically expand
federal regulation of health care. Federal law would for the first time
require insurance companies to cover all Americans, regardless of their
health status, and would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to
people who become sick.
Individuals would also be required to buy insurance.
And large employers would have to provide their employees with health
benefits or in some cases face penalties.
The bill would open the nation’s 45-year-old
The government would also create new state-based
insurance marketplaces for millions of Americans who do not get
coverage through work.
Commercial insurers would offer plans in these
marketplaces, or exchanges, and be required to provide a minimum set of
benefits, including mental health services, maternity care and
preventive care.
The most expensive feature is a commitment by the federal government to provide nearly
The bill is also designed to give relief to small businesses, providing about
And the legislation would make prescriptions more affordable for seniors by gradually closing the
The major expansion in federal assistance to tens of millions of Americans is not without a cost.
To pay for their legislation, Democrats approved a new 3.8 percent tax on investment income for individuals making more than
And Medical device makers, pharmaceutical companies and insurers will be subject to new excise taxes.
The bill would also cut more than
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
