Behind locked doors, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her liberal colleagues have merged three previously presented health care reform bills and will reveal its contents today.  The three previous bills failed to gain the necessary 218 votes in the House of Representatives to move forward in the lawmaking process despite democrats holding the majority of Congress by a significant margin.

Reuters reports this morning that the new bill will include a government-run insurance plan but does not include a "cadillac plan tax" or a surcharge on the best health insurance plans, as previously discussed. 

Now included in the new bill is a surtax on individuals earning more than $500,000 per year or couples earning more than $1 million per year, a mandate on every person in the United States to purchase health insurance, and penalties for small businesses that fail to provide adequate (as determined by the government) coverage for employees.

Several lawmakers, both republican and democrat, have expressed concern with the lack of provisions in the bill for publically funded abortions.  Some have said they will not vote in favor of the bill if such provisions are not added. (Associated Press)

Still to be revealed is how to pay for the massive spending required to overtake the health care industry as Pelosi desires.  Her democratic colleagues have some ideas.

From Reuters:

Democratic Representative Marion Berry of Arkansas said he was undecided if he would support the measure because he was concerned about how it would be paid for and he wanted to see more money taken from the drugmakers and insurance industry.

 

"If they aren't squealing to the high heavens, we haven't hit them hard enough," he told reporters.

Insurance companies, once working with the Obama administration on health care reform, have pulled back from that alliance as more and more lawmakers villify them in the media.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a celebratory press conference today on the public grounds of the Capitol building to announce the completion of the merged House health care reform bill now entitled "Affordable Health Care for America."

Allowing only invited media to attend the presser, Pelosi said, "We have listened to the American people."

That statement is obviously hard to believe as she didn't even allow the public to the press conference, let alone address the poll numbers, tea party activists or townhall meetings that went so awry this summer.

The revised version of the health care reform bill of over 1,900 pages and said to cost upwards of $800 Billion can be viewed in its entirety here:  AHCA

Immediately following the staged Democrat presser, the House Republicans held their own in response to the unveiling of the new bill.

Representatives Boehner, Cantor and Pence all expressed disapproval of the bill and its impact on the federal deficit as it overhauls the U.S. health care industry.

From National Review Online, Representative Blunt has additional concerns with the bill.

House GOP whip Roy Blunt hammered Speaker Pelosi for procedural chicanery and shutting Republicans out of process crafting legislation. Blunt noted that even as they scramble to figure out what's in the 1990 page bill it's "highly likely" that an "800 page amendment will be offered the moment it hits the floor... Nobody will know what’s in this bill 72 hours from now.”

Many pages of legislation have been created in Washington in the last 9 months in attempt to restructure the health care system in the United States.  What does it all mean?  What is in actually in the legislation?  Please read  Politics 101: What is Health Care Reform?

AP Photo Alex Brandon

For more info, check out a 3 part series on health insurance reform as it has unfolded since June, understand why health care reform is being pushed through Congress, and what is really being discussed behind closed doors, click here: Health Care Reform, part 1

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