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Passage of House health care bill a step in the right direction
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While falling short of what is needed to completely fix our broken health care system, House approval of H.R. 3962, The Affordable Health Care for America Act, is still a step in the right direction.
The bill, passed by a 220-215 vote, is the first comprehensive health care bill ever approved by the House and the biggest expansion of health care coverage since Medicare was created in 1965. It is expected to expand health care coverage to 36 million uninsured Americans, raising the proportion of those with health insurance to 96 percent.
H.R. 3962 includes a public health insurance option without a state opt-out, prevents insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions or charging higher premiums due to gender or medical history, provides federal subsidies to people who can't afford health insurance, and requires insurance companies to pay out 85 percent of their premiums for health care, compared to the current 70 percent medical loss ratio. There are mandates on individuals to buy health insurance and employers to provide it, with small businesses also receiving federal subsidies.
But the bill also included a backward step, when an amendment introduced by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) that bans the use of federal funds to pay for abortions, whether it be subsidies or the public option, was approved by a 240-194 vote. Following the lead of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Stupak and other Democrats who supported his amendment threatened to vote against the bill if a vote on the amendment wasn't allowed. By so doing, both these politicians and the bishops showed a skewed sense of morality, giving restrictions on abortion rights the priority over a much needed widening of the social safety net.
As has been the case since the beginning of the health care reform debate, Republicans were little more than insurer-backed obstructionists. Only one Republican voted for the bill, while 39 Democrats opposed it. In the Michigan delegation, the vote was strictly party line, with all eight Democrats voting in favor and all seven Republicans voting against. All but one House Republican voted for the Stupak amendment and they were joined by 64 Democrats. The only other Michigan Democrat to support the amendment was Rep. Dale Kildee.
In an unusual instance, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a Single Payer supporter, voted against the bill, claiming that it would be a windfall for the insurance companies that are the problem, with only six million Americans able to use the public option. But the fight is far from over, as the health care reform debate now moves to the Senate.
In addressing a joint session of Congress on health care reform, President Barack Obama said, "I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last." But if H.R. 3962 is enacted into law as is or in a similar form, further progress on health care reform would be needed to guarantee universal coverage, break the stranglehold of insurance companies, and make American businesses more competitive by socializing the cost of health care.
