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Loading...House Votes 220 to 215 to Pass Health-Care Reform Bill
In a rare weekend legislative session the House has voted to pass the health-care overhaul bill, voting 220 to 215 in favor. Just 218 votes were needed to pass the bill, but it was only with the Stupak amendment that passage became achievable as anti-abortion Democrats fell into line, but at what cost for women’s rights?
The Washington Post reported early Saturday that the 177 House Republicans had decided to unanimously vote against the reform bill – only one Republican, Rep. Joseph Chao of Louisiana’s 2nd District, broke that vow.
There reasons for voting against the bill remain the $1 trillion price tag, the level of government involvement in the private health care sector, and proposed taxes on the wealthy, among other complaints. A Republican version of the health care bill was rejected on a vote of 176-258.
President Obama arranged a special meeting with House Democrats early Saturday to try and make the final push for the vote, hoping that a Democrat majority could allow his health care overhaul to prevail.
He later gave the following address:
Until late Friday however, the House Democrats had been divided over an abortion related issue, where House Reps. such as Bart Stupak (D-Mich) had expressed concern that the new health-care bill could have provided federal funding for abortion care related services.
Current law prevents federal funds being used for abortions except in circumstances of rape or incest, or if the mother’s life is in jeopardy.
Assurances were made, however, that Democrats against abortion would be able to amend the bill during debate to make tougher restrictions to that particular facet of the legislation, and therein the House Democrats hoped to get over the procedural impasse. This amendment, known as the Stupak Amendment, was passed by a vote of 240-194 with 64 Democrats voting in favor of the bill.
The amendment would mean that any individual or business that is given federal subsidy or tax credit could not purchase an abortion-care inclusive health care plan. An individual could, however, take out a self-financed seperate policy.
There is no guarantee that the amendment will survive when the health-care reform bill is reconciled with its Senate counterpart. This has angered some:
There are doubts as to whether Stupak’s amendment is even legal.
Live-blogging for the Huffington Post, Ryan Grim wrote, “Stupak’s amendment would represent the most significant rollback of reproductive rights in decades,” and asks “is it even Constitutional?”
Pro-choice Democrats have said that, should the amendment make it to the final bill, they may vote against it, warning that the inclusion of this provision could mark a return to back-alley abortions.
Nevertheless, earlier in the day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the health-care reform legislation, and its passage from the House, “a historic moment for our nation and for America’s families”:
Sen. Olympia Snow (R-Maine) has indicated that she may vote to pass the Senate version of the health-care reform bill, although she is known to support a less robust version of reform than what many Democrats have been pushing for.
When she voted outside of party-lines to pass the weaker health-care reform bill from the Senate Finance Committee in October, she said:
“Is this the bill that I would want? Far from it. But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress taking every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time… my vote today is my vote today. It doesn’t forecast what my vote will be tomorrow.”
It is likely that the Senate version of the bill will not include the 5.4 percent tax on couples earning over $1 million per year as the House bill does, which has consistently been a piece of the health-care reform legislation that Republicans have opposed.
Even with passage from the House, delays are expected in the Senate where the weaker public option will be debated in the coming weeks. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has indicated that their schedule may slip, pushing a vote on the health-care bill back into the New Year.
For more on this week’s health care reform news, click here.
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Read more: democrat vote, health care legislation, health care reform, health policy, house vote health care, president obama, senate vote health care
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+ add your ownOK, D&C/dilation and curettage/abortion however you do refer to it is still a surgical procedure and in most cases is a procedure of choice for females compromised either physically, emotionally, psychologically and /or financially. An unwanted pregnancy is a great burden for the individual as well as the society who forces a woman against her will and /or her better judgement, to bear a child. I made an ill advised choice to bear the child of the man who raped me and now society is being threatened by another sociopath. I have placed this child (who attempted to kill her little sister) in an institution, but my greatest feeling is one of guilt. I should have followed my better instincts and terminated the pregnancy instead of burdening society with a homicidal freak. Not all Children are meant to be born. I listened to the advice of others and as a result almost lost my younger daughter.
http://www.helpfreetheearth.com/news15_Flu.html
Will help give you some insight on whats really going on with health issues
Emagin Peace, I have to agree with you. Our Medicare and Medicaid systems are going bankrupt. Medicare and Medicaid fraud losses are over $250 billion dollars a year with very little money available in the Medicare system to prevent fraud or to try to recover money lost to fraud, But we are going to trust our government to establish a new public option plan and screw that up too. There seem to be a lot of people that are too trusting of our government's ability to handle their health care. Their track record is pretty poor so far. With a wife that totally bedbound with MS, I deal with both private insurance, Medicare and medical providers almost every day. I know firsthand how screwed up the government can get when handling health insurance matters and how hard it is to get a mistake corrected that Medicare has made.
be careful what you wish for, and from whom you are wishing it.
Be careful what you wish for. The same people that continue to war on innocent people putting our troops in harms way - for what?, the same people that have indebted us and generations to come so wall street and banks are fat, the same people eroding your personal rights are going to being you a wonderful health care reform bill?
What do you base this on? If you go by the track record we are in serious, more serious, trouble.
Heather O., Your comment about Planned Parenthood being under attack just proves why elective abortions are probably never going to be included in a government run health care plan. The pressure from the anti-abortion side is too great and the only solution to possibly get a public option plan passed was to pass the Stupak amendment to get enough votes.
You can believe what you want, but if you want a chance for a public option plan to pass, it will have to be without coverage for elective surgeries to get enough votes in congress.
"I would agree to all abortions being paid for without exception, provided that those abortions that are "chosen" to end pregnancies that resulted from irresponsible/reckless behaviour/mistakes are accompanied by voluntary sterilization (also paid for) so that we don't have to pay for any more irresponsible/reckless behaviour in the future."
You do that Steve. You go ahead and sit in your little self rightious corner and pass judgement on what is irresponsible or reckless behavior. Make sure you remind women who go to a bar that it's THEIR fault for going to a bar if a man rapes her.
Steve R, you really ARE ignorant. EVERYTHING has a failure rate, nothing is 100% effective.
"The failure rate for vasectomy is about 1 percent. The failure rate for tubal ligation is slightly higher at about 2 percent which translates into a risk of pregnancy occurring following tubal ligation of about 1 pregnancy in 1000 women who've undergone this procedure."
LEARN. YOUR. FACTS.
"There are nonprofit foundations for all major diseases and they are very successful, why not start one for abortion?"
It's called planned parenthood and they provide MANY reproductive and reproductive health services that include abortion, and they are constantly under attack not only by physical means, but also by funding cuts by right wing-anti-choice extremists.
*shakes head*
I thought the idea of health care reform was to find ways to lower insurance costs. Elective surgeries are not covered by most health insurances now. Instead of insisting that the public option cover abortions, why can't a foundation be formed to provide funds to help cover the cost of abortions for those that can't afford them. This would get the abortion issue off the table and still solve the problem. I am not anti abortion, but there are other alternatives to help woman who choose to have an abortion besides making health insurance or the public option cover it. After all, we are supposedly trying to reduce health insurance costs. There are nonprofit foundations for all major diseases and they are very successful, why not start one for abortion?
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