The U.S. House of Representatives passed its sweeping health care reform bill Saturday by a razor-thin margin of 220-215—two more than the necessary majority of 218—in the first victory of many that supporters of reform will have to achieve before the long-standing Democratic goal can become reality.
The bill—at a cost of $1.1 trillion over 10 years, funded by new fees and taxes and cost cuts to Medicare—would cover 36 million currently uninsured Americans, supporters say. It would establish a government-run insurance program, known as the public option, and forbid insurance companies from denying people coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions or revoking their coverage if they become seriously ill.
“We’re obviously very happy that the bill was finally passed,” said Avi Edelman, CC ’11 and communications director for the Columbia University College Democrats. “It’s a little personally disappointing that it had to be passed with so many concessions to anti-abortion Democrats, but in the end progress is progress, even if it’s not to the lengths we’d hoped it would be.”
As Edelman alluded to, House Democrats were forced to make several concessions to gain passage of their bill. Most controversially, a last-minute amendment sponsored by Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) prohibited federal health care funding for abortions. Specifically, abortions will not be funded under the government-sponsored public option, and people cannot use the federal “affordability credits” created by the bill to buy a private health care plan that covers abortion.
“We are quite opposed to it [the House bill] because it stands against a lot of our values—fiscal responsibility, low taxes, individual freedom, and the free market,” said Derek Turner, CC ’12 and communications director for the Columbia University College Republicans. “We were disappointed to see it pass the House, and we’re hoping that the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate will realize that it’s not something that’s beneficial to the country.”
The issue now moves to the Senate, where at least two proposals—one from the Senate Finance Committee and one from the Health Committee—are up for debate. If the Senate passes a bill, it will have to conference with the House to reconcile the two versions.
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