Health Care Bill Passes in House after Protracted Debate

Published: Wed 18 Nov 2009

Larry Roth - Staff Writer

House Democrats eked out a victory on Saturday night, passing widespread health care reform. Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats managed to pass the bill with a 220-215 margin during a rare Saturday session. The vote finally took place in the evening after hours of impassioned debating between the two parties.

United in their vehement opposition to the bill, Republicans debated the bills advocates passionately for most of the day. The debate was characterized by powerful speeches and caustic rhetoric. Representatives from both parties paraded their children and grandchildren to the podium with them in the all-day showdown that vacillated between melodramatic and contentious.

Republicans argued that the bill would give the federal government an unprecedented amount of power and raise, not lower, the cost of health care in the United States. Republican lawmakers blasted the bill for creating additional taxes and not including any provisions to curtail the number of medical malpractice litigation.

"Does this bill mean the government will take over running health care? Yes," opined Representative Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.). "But what's worse, this bill replaces the American idea with a European-style social welfare state."

In the bill's defense, the Democrats portrayed the legislation as a moral imperative that presidents have attempted to fulfill since Theodore Roosevelt. Democrats contended that the bill would remedy the ugliest aspects of America's healthcare system by prohibiting insurance companies from denying the sick health care coverage and protecting Americans from the financial devastation that often results from medical expenses.

"It is testimony to how we care for our fellow citizens," explained John Larson (D., Conn.). "It is at the very core of all that America stands for, and why we came here to serve."

At the heart of the debate over the bill was a furor over whether the legislation should include provisions for publicly funded abortions. Pro-life Democrats and Republicans called for an amendment to the bill that would prohibit insurance abortion coverage for those who obtain new coverage through the legislation.

In one of the most dramatic moments of the hours'-long debate, pro-life forces got there way when the House passed such an amendment by a margin of 240-194. The amendment prevents women from using government-issued insurance or any other health plan receiving federal subsidies in order to obtain an abortion.

The health care reform bill now moves on to the Senate, where passing legislation is much more difficult than in the House. The Senate must come up with its own rendition of the bill, on which Congress as a whole must then vote. Potential hurdles in the Senate are many, but President Obama remains confident that he will sign the bill into law by the end of the year.