While Campus Progress was busy organizing 1,500 young activists and journalists for our National Conference last week, Congress has been busy nailing down the details of health care reform.
The HELP Committee in the Senate has been in mark up for the Affordable Health Choices Act for 12 days now (almost a record for how many days Congress allows amendments to proposed legislation). Committee members hope to complete mark up today in an effort to have the bill voted on before the August recess.
I personally don’t think it’s going to happen by then. It is only two weeks away, and so far Committee members are pulling out every trick in the book to delay and obstruct this health care bill.
Republican committee members have proposed about 70 amendments to the health reform legislation, only to turn around and vote against about 64 of them. Who votes against their own amendments? People who are playing games, that’s who. But they are playing games with our future, and we don’t think it’s funny.
Republicans have been spending the recent days in mark up discussing amendments for health care reform that have nothing to do with how to make health care affordable or more accessible, but instead focus on abortion and euthanasia.
This seemed to be Senator Hatch’s (R- Utah) biggest concern; his question was not ‘how are we going to insure the 47 million Americans lacking health coverage?’, but ‘how are we going to ensure that reform doesn’t force plans to cover abortion providers?’.
This is just absurd. Quite frankly it’s pathetic to see anti-choice members pulling out the old abortion card once again. Congress members’ moral beliefs on abortion can be discussed in a separate conversation, but right now our health care system is in a state of peril and we are counting on Congress to get it together, stop obstructing real health care reform, and pass sweeping legislation that will begin the process of healing our broken health care system.
On the other side of the chamber, there seems to be a bit more progress. House Democrats revealed their 1,000 page health care bill today, and plan to work on the legislation within three separate committees in the House, hoping to vote on the bill by the end of the month. The House bill looks good so far:
The cornerstone of the plan is a public-financed health insurance option that would compete with private insurers. The legislation includes subsidies to help people buy insurance, and requires all individuals to purchase insurance or face a tax penalty.
Among the sweeping changes in the health insurance industry, it would bar insurers from denying coverage to anyone based on pre-existing medical conditions. It would also cap the amount the insured would have to pay on “out-of-pocket” healthcare expenses.
Let’s just hope the bag of tricks on obstructing reform stays out of the House debate, although that’s already looking murky. It looks like House Blue Dogs, the coalition of moderate Democrats that always vote together, are already hinting at derailing or delaying the bill for cost reasons and are definitely concerned about the timing of getting the legislation passed.
It is clear that Congress needs to hear from us! Call 1-877-264-HCAN today to tell your Congress members to stop obstructing reform and pass a bold health care bill NOW.