Health care reform bill and the rising furor over what it means

Our Constitution governs how bills become laws

A proposed bill called America’s Affordable Health Choices Act is the vehicle for health care reform primarily being discussed today. Three different committees in the House of Representatives worked together to develop a single proposal for health reform.  On July 17th, the House Committees on Education and Labor and Ways and Means passed H.R. 3200. The Energy and Commerce Committee is currently working on marking up H.R. 3200.

As written, H.R. 3200 is 1018 pages long. Certain pages seem to have caught the attention of interest groups on both sides. Passions are running high. Rhetoric on both sides is becoming frenzied.

Republicans are accused of running a campaign of misinformation including staging town hall style meetings showing voters opposed to the health reform bill.

Democrats are accused a staging town hall style meetings showing voters in favor of health care reform. Both sides are leaving Washington and going home to their various districts purportedly to  try and understand what voters really want.

What seems to have been forgotten in the flurry of media interest in specific lines of the bill, is that this is a proposed bill. Proposed means it is in progress. It is not final. It is not law.

Furthermore, if everyone remembers they way the U.S. legislative process works, it is not the only proposal. The Senate has its own various versions of a health reform bill.  While the political battle over health care reform ramps up outside of Washington, the Senate Finance Committee is inching closer to a bipartisan bill that is looking for some middle ground.

Before spending way too much time talking about the House bill, which may or may not be revised in the House after debate, let us remember that under our Constitution,  the U.S. Congress, is bicameral in structure. This means that it consists of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate.   Both houses must separately pass a bill in order for the bill to become law.

Before the passage of the bill which will ultimately become law, both the House and the Senate will hold public debates. Listen, read and learn but remember that what is before us today is just one or many proposals for health care reform.  Don't become too vested in language that is likely to change.  Don't let yourself get caught up in inflammatory rhetoric which serves only to inflame passions not educate.
 

For further info:  Read the bill itself, all 1018 pages.  If you read a link or a blog or a commentary you will be getting the opinion of someone else.  You may agree with them but first get the real information yourself.