US passes Obama’s healthcare reform bill
President Barack Obama’s controversial healthcare reform bill has been passed in the United States today, bringing to an end an exhaustive lobbying campaign which has stirred passions on both sides of the debate for over a year.
The bill was passed with 219 votes from the Democrats defeating the combined nay votes of 178 Republicans and 34 Democrats.
The final total was 219 to 212 in favour of reform.
The reform is likely to be judged alongside the boldest acts of presidents and Congress in domestic affairs. While national health care has long been a goal of presidents stretching back decades, it has proved elusive, in part because self-reliance and suspicion of a powerful central government remain strong in the US.
“The best action we can take to keep America competitive … is to pass healthcare reform,” house speaker Nancy Pelosi said moments before the vote.
She said Americans would be spared from the “obscene” policies of the country’s private health insurers, recalling the cases of a woman, a child and an elderly person who faced obstructions because of “pre-existing conditions.”
In the hours before the vote, House Democratic leaders were still trying to nail down commitments from a handful of members, some of whom remained concerned about the abortion issue.
Republicans attributed the caution to public controversy over the plan, which played out in angry protests at the doorstep of the Capitol during the House of Representatives’ rare weekend session.
Republicans remain resolutely opposed to the legislation and warned they would make Democrats pay dearly in the autumn elections when control of Congress is at stake.
They contend the plan amounts to a government takeover of health care that will lead to higher deficits and taxes.
Eric Cantor, the House’s second-ranking Republican, told ABC before the vote that “the American people don’t want this to pass. There will be no Republican votes for this bill.”
A last-minute compromise that swung a half-dozen anti-abortion Democrats behind the bill failed to placate outside activists on either side of the issue, and drew derision from Republicans.
Democratic representative Bart Stupak, leader of the anti-abortion bloc, said he was satisfied with an executive order issued by Obama affirming prohibitions in current law and in the health legislation against taxpayer money going to abortions.
[New Zealand Herald]
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