Obama to Sign Health Care Bill; States Challenge Insurance Mandate
March 22, 2010 – Aside from some dissenting Democrats, members of the U.S. House of Representatives late Sunday night voted mostly along party lines to approve the Senate health care bill by a narrow 219-212 vote, Senate leaders say a reconciliation vote likely will be held this week after President Barack Obama signs the Senate bill into law tomorrow.
The $938 billion health care package that largely would begin to take effect in 2013 requires qualifying individuals without health insurance to purchase it or pay an annual $750 fine – unless the individual is a member of certain religious organizations, such as various Amish sects or the Church of Christ Science. It expands federal Medicaid health insurance coverage for the poor to people earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level – currently $10,830 for individuals and $22,050 for families with four members, and provides federal subsidies for qualifying individuals and families to help pay for health insurance coverage.
The legislation also would create health insurance exchanges for U.S. citizens to purchase affordable health insurance coverage with federal subsidies available for people earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level. Federal lawmakers say the health insurance mandate and creation of health insurance exchanges should help the estimated 31 million Americans currently lacking health insurance coverage to obtain it and force those who currently choose not to purchase health insurance to buy it.
The estimated cost of the health care reform plan – $938 billion over 10 years – would be paid through increased taxes on individuals reporting more than $200,000 and couples reporting more than $250,000 in annual income. Taxes also would be levied on so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans provided by employers and costing $10,200 annually for individuals and $27,500 for families, and tanning salons using ultraviolet lamps would have to pay a 10 percent excise tax. Capital gains taxes also would go up, in addition to several other taxes.
The President has scheduled a bill signing tomorrow, after which the Senate will take up a companion reconciliation measure to iron out budgetary items. The House approved the reconciliation bill in addition to its health care vote last night, but Senate Republican leaders are saying the Senate parliamentarian very well might strike down one or more provisions in the reconciliation bill due to procedural missteps and requiring the House of Representative to take up the measure yet again.
But, even if all the political trickery and sleight-of-hand should result in the health insurance mandate becoming law, the attorneys general of seven states, including Florida and Texas, today announced they are filing suit challenging the legality of a federal health insurance mandate, and officials in at least 30 other states are considering similar action.
“The health care reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last night clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and infringes on each state’s sovereignty,” Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said today in a statement announcing their intent. “On behalf of the State of Florida and of the Attorneys General from South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania, Washington, North Dakota, South Dakota and Alabama, if the President signs this bill into law, we will file a lawsuit to protect the rights and the interests of American citizens.”
Idaho Joins Virginia in Outlawing Proposed Health Insurance Mandate
March 18, 2010 – As federal lawmakers zero in on a proposed Sunday vote on radical changes to the nation’s $2.5 trillion-a-year health care system, Idaho on Wednesday joined Virginia in formally outlawing a proposed federal health insurance mandate.
Idaho Governor Butch Otter on Wednesday signed the Idaho Health Freedom Act into law, joining Virginia as the first states to formally enact legislation challenging a key component of the highly contested federal health care legislation. The law requires the Idaho attorney general to file a legal challenge to any federal health insurance mandate the might be enacted. The measure is similar to the one recently enacted in Virginia and being considered by lawmakers in at least 36 other states.
Opponents to the Idaho law say challenging the potential federal mandate is a waste of state resources and money due to the fact federal law supercedes state laws. But Otter contends even the weight of federal law can be challenged.
“The ivory tower folks will tell you, ‘No, they’re not going anywhere,’” Otter told the IdahoStatesman. “But I’ll tell you what: You get 36 states, that’s a critical mass. That’s a constitutional mass.”
Idaho lawmakers enacted the measure during the same week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a likely Sunday, March 20, vote on the health care bill already approved by the U.S. Senate that does not include a “public” health care option but does require all Americans to purchase health insurance or face a penalty. The measure also would allow federal funding of abortions but does not allow illegal immigrants to purchase health insurance through federal health insurance exchanges.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and other leading Democrats are trying to get the Senate bill approved in the House through a controversial reconciliation process never before used to enact major legislation and designed to prevent a likely GOP filibuster in the Senate through the normal legislative process.
Federal lawmakers in the House of Representatives are touting an “unofficial” and partial Congressional Budget Office scoring showing the proposed health care reform would cost $940 billion over 10 years and save the federal government about $130 billion over the same period. But officials at the Congressional Budget Office today issued a clarification saying the initial estimate does not take into account proposed changes in a proposed reconciliation measure Senate and House Democrats eventually want enacted into law.
“Although [the Congressional Budget Office] completed a preliminary review of legislative language prior to its release, the agency has not thoroughly examined the reconciliation proposal to verify its consistency with the previous draft. This estimate is therefore preliminary, pending a review of the language of the reconciliation proposal, as well as further review and refinement of the budgetary projections,” Congressional Budget Office officials told House and Senate leaders in a statement today.
A divided House Budget Committee on Monday approved a controversial legislative maneuver to circumvent traditional U.S. Senate rules and force through sweeping national health care changes.
The House panel voted 21 to 16 to all a reconciliation process to occur. Two House Democrats broke from party ranks and voted against the reconciliation resolution. The health care plan already approved with 60 votes in the U.S. Senate before the death of Democrat Ted Kennedy and the surprise election of Republican Scott Brown derailed President Barack Obama’s efforts to push through sweeping changes to the $2.5 trillion-a-year U.S. health care system that would not take effect for several years.
Recognizing his “top domestic priority” and a key part of his 2008 presidential campaign platform might not get the necessary legislative support to become law, President Barack Obama today announced he is postponing an planned trip to Asia in order to stay in Washington and attempt to gain the required votes for passage Sunday.
House Committee Advances Health Care Reconciliation
March 14, 2010 – A divided House Budget Committee today approved a controversial legislative maneuver to circumvent traditional U.S. Senate rules and force through sweeping national health care changes.
The House panel voted 21 to 16 to allow a reconciliation process to occur. Two House Democrats broke from party ranks and voted against the reconciliation resolution. The health care plan already approved with 60 votes in the U.S. Senate before the death of Democrat Ted Kennedy and the surprise election of Republican Scott Brown derailed President Barack Obama’s efforts to push through sweeping changes to the $2.5 trillion-a-year U.S. health care system that would not take effect for several years.
Stunned from the upset loss that removed the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate, party leaders and Obama have turned to parliamentary sleight of hand. The House Rules Committee now will take up the measure and rewrite sections before House members vote on it possibly this week. House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi said a vote might be held on Sunday, March 20, keeping in step with prior health care votes being conducted at highly unusual times.
Reconciliation is designed to help lawmakers advance budgetary legislation containing controversial elements, but reconciliation never has been used as a final vote on major legislation. The last time reconciliation was used was to approve the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, which received some 79 votes just in the reconciliation process. The last controversial reconciliation vote was used for the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, in which 50 Republican Senators voted in favor with then-Vice President Dick Cheney casting the deciding reconciliation vote in favor of hotly contested tax cuts. Although the tax cutting measure barely survived the reconciliation process, the Senate overwhelmingly approved the final measure with 66 votes and bipartisan support.
Although reconciliation never has been used to give final approval to sweeping legislation, the President and leading Democrats are attempting to push through their health care reform efforts using only a reconciliation vote in order to circumvent Senate rules through a Parliamentarian sleight of hand. The Senate Parliamentarian already has ruled that for reconciliation to take place, the House of Representatives must vote in favor the $875 billion health care reform bill already approved with 60 votes in the Senate, and the President must sign it into law.
Once the Senate bill becomes law, only the provisions affecting the federal budget can be revised through the reconciliation process. Adding a student loan program takeover estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cost taxpayers some $68 billion give Democrats more leverage over budgetary impacts, but they must overcome internal opposition before securing the number of votes needed for passage.
Because the Senate version of health care reform includes federal funding for abortions, several pro-life House Democrats oppose it. And the members of the House Hispanic Caucus have said they might not support the Senate measure due to its barring illegal aliens from purchasing health insurance through proposed federal health insurance exchanges.