The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — House Democrats are pushing to the brink of passage a landmark, $940 billion health care overhaul bill that would simultaneously deliver on President Barack Obama’s promise to expand coverage while slashing the deficit, a strategy aimed at winning over the party’s fiscal conservatives.
Leaving nothing to chance, the White House announced that Obama has put off his planned trip to Asia for a second time, delaying it until June. Obama was to have left Sunday — when the House is planning to vote.
Said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “He wants to be here for the history.”
The 10-year plan would provide coverage to 32 million people now uninsured through a combination of tax credits for middle class households and an expansion of the Medicaid program for low income people. Release of the legislation later today sets the stage for a House vote on Sunday, and Democrats have already signaled they plan to go it alone, without Republican support. The GOP has steadfastly opposed Obama’s plan from the outset.
It would restructure one-sixth of the economy, covering 95 percent of eligible Americans, in the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare was created in 1965. It would also impose new obligations on individuals and businesses, requiring for the first time that most Americans carry health insurance and penalizing medium-sized and large companies that don’t provide coverage for their workers.
Hospitals and doctors, drug companies and insurers would gain millions of new paying customers, but they would also have to adjust to major changes. Medicare cuts would force hospitals to operate more efficiently or risk going out of business, but seniors would see the coverage gap in their prescription benefits gradually eliminated. Insurance companies would face unprecendented federal regulation. Health care industries would be hit with new federal taxes. Upper-income households would face a new tax on investment earnings.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over its first 10 years, and continue to drive down the red ink thereafter. Democratic leaders said the deficit would be cut $1.2 trillion in the second decade— and Obama called it the biggest reduction since the 1990s, when President Bill Clinton put the federal budget on a path to surplus.
“This is but one virtue of a reform that would bring accountability to the insurance industry and bring greater economic security to all Americans,” Obama said. “So I urge every member of Congress to consider this as they prepare for their important vote this weekend.”
