Democrats employed arm-twisting and deal making to secure passage of a historic and sweeping health care bill Sunday, achieving a stunning revival of legislation that appeared all but dead a few weeks ago.
The $940 billion measure passed by a vote of 219 to 212 as hundreds of sign-waving protesters on the Capitol’s south lawn hollered into the windows of the House to “kill the bill.”
Determined to get the bill signed into law despite the plan’s anemic poll numbers, House Democratic leaders managed to convince their once-dubious caucus that passing the legislation was far better than doing nothing at all after they invested so many months in the effort.
“We have before us a bill to change an unsustainable course,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on the House floor. “Through more than 3,000 district events, more than 100 hearings and almost two years of public argument, health insurance reform has stood up to scrutiny, to criticism, to falsehood.”
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the bill was brought to the floor “in defiance of our citizens,” and its passage would be “the last straw for the American people.”
Passage came after a day of backroom deal cutting by Democrats and the White House, who secured last-minute votes from a critical bloc of anti-abortion Democrats who wanted assurance that no federal funding would be spent to cover abortions. The group, led by Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, withheld its support for the bill until President Obama agreed Sunday afternoon to sign an executive order barring the use of taxpayer money for the procedure. Stupak’s group backed down on a demand that the changes be included in the legislation.
“Make no doubt about it, there will be no public funds for abortion,” Stupak said.
But Republicans denounced the executive order as easily reversible and said it would do little to prevent federal funding of the procedure.
“It turns over the protection of the unborn to the most pro-abortion president in history, and no member who votes for it will ever be able to claim they stood on the side of the unborn,” said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa. “This is a career-defining vote.”
Apart from language regarding abortion funding, the GOP staunchly opposed the bill over its cost and scope. Not one Republican voted for the bill.
“This bill is a fiscal Frankenstein, it’s a government takeover and it’s not right,” said Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the top Republican on the House Budget Committee.
The bill will make dramatic changes to the nation’s health care system by subsidizing care for millions of Americans and mandating for the first time that everyone carry an insurance policy. It imposes new regulations on the health insurance industry, prohibiting it from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, eliminating lifetime caps on policies and banning the practice of charging higher premiums for women.
The bill expands coverage to an additional 32 million people and pays for much of it by slashing Medicare by $529 billion and raising hundreds of billions in new taxes on expensive insurance plans, hospitals, medical devices and on those earning more than $200,000. At least $65 billion will be raised over the next decade by fining individuals who fail to purchase insurance and businesses that do not provide coverage to their employees.
The mandates will be enforced by the Internal Revenue Service, which will hire an additional 17,000 agents.
