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House Passes Landmark Health Care Reform |
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| Union members have rallied for health care across the country. |
This is what progress looks like. Tonight, by a 220-215 vote, the U.S. House has passed a historic health care reform bill that will improve the nation’s health care system, covering millions of uninsured and making insurance work better for those who have it.
H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, fulfills the decades-long promise to create a system that provides affordable, high-quality health care coverage to nearly everyone. It will break the stranglehold of insurance company greed and cut costs for both families and the country. It will make a real difference for families across the country.
The bill is fairly funded, relying on employer responsibility and a surtax on the highest earners—not a tax on middle-class workers’ health benefits. And it offers the choice of a public health insurance option that can compete with private insurers.
Across the country, a broad coalition of community groups, including the union movement, fought hard and reached out to House members to ask them to pass this critical bill. Thousands of your letters and phone calls helped make the difference.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says this bill is a big victory for working families:
We heard a lot of rhetoric today, but in the end it boils down to this: It is time to say “yes” to a more secure future for Americans—and that is how the majority in the House of Representatives answered. It is time to say “yes” to lowering health costs, breaking the stranglehold of the insurance companies and extending health care to those in our rich country who are sick and need it. Shame on those who stood for the failed status quo by voting “no.”
We applaud Speaker Pelosi, the other members of the leadership and the majority in the House of Representatives for bringing us closer than ever to our long-held goal.
The U.S. Senate will consider a health care reform bill over the coming weeks, and then the House and Senate will combine the bills in conference. There’s still a long way to go, but today is a great day for the country and a big step toward a health care system that works for everyone.
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On health care, something is desperately wrong with this country when the fact that the great majority of Americans want the public option simply has no relevance. I’m tired of being ruled by legislators who insist (and set out to prove) that the US is too incompetent, too inferior, to establish a public health care system as good as that found in the more modern nations.
Totally agree with you. Nurses and physicians are for single payer. The AFL-CIO membership endorsed single payer at their fall convention. Why is the union leadership falling into bed with the insurance industry? I smell a very large RAT!! We should not be rejoicing and thanking our legislators. This bill will not help those who need it. An ammendment is included to limit availability of safe abortions. Women should look closely at this.
This bill is going to result in a gigantic increase in bureaucracy! Wouldn’t it have been less costly to just regulate the insurance industry? Could someone please explain to me why it’s going to cost a trillion dollars to: #1. tell insurance companies they can’t deny people coverage for a pre-existing condition, #2. tell those same companies they can’t drop people just because they get sick and #3. set up a ‘public option’ that people can choose instead of the ‘norm’? It seems to me the majority of the cost is driven by the hundreds or thousands of new government employees it’s going to take just to oversee the damn thing!
The complexity of the proposed reform has obscured the fact that it is writtten for the benefit of the insurers and big pharma……no matter though, they’ll come out against it as a gov’t take-over of your health care. SINGLE PAYER NOW! Medicare for all!
No bill is better than this bad bill!