Pelosi Unveils House Health Care Bill

Sweeping Health Care Overhaul Includes Mandatory Sign-Ups, Public Option, Covers 96 Percent of Americans

(CBS/ AP)  Updated at 12:45 p.m. ET.

House Democrats unveiled sweeping health care legislation Thursday that would vastly alter America's medical landscape, requiring virtually universal sign-ups and establishing a new government-run insurance option for millions.

"Today we are about to deliver on the promise of making quality, affordable health care available for all Americans," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said from the steps of the Capitol building. "We have listened to the American people. We are putting forth a bill that reflrects our best values and greatest challenges."

Lawmakers have said the legislation could be up for a vote on the House floor next week.

The legislation's unveiling caps months of arduous negotiations to bridge differences between liberal and moderate Democrats and blend health care overhaul bills passed by three separate committees over the summer.

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The final product in the House, reflecting many of President Obama's priorities, includes new requirements for employers to offer insurance to their workers or face penalties, fines on Americans who don't purchase coverage and subsidies to help lower-income people do so. Insurance companies would face new prohibitions against charging much more to older people or denying coverage to people with health conditions.

The bill, Pelosi said, will insure 36 million more Americans, extending health coverage to around 96 percent of Americans. It brings "affordability for the middle class, security for our seniors and responsibility to our children," Pelosi said.

Still, some controversial issues need to be worked out.

While the bill includes a government-run insurance plan, or "public option," Democratic progressives are frustrated that it allows negotiated rates to providers instead of set rates, a complaint they're certain to voice in a White House meeting with President Barack Obama later in the day.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was noncommittal on Wednesday about whether progressives would accept the negotiated rates. "This is not walkaway time and it is not acceptance time," she said.

Other complications remain as well. A group of conservative Democrats are threatening to block the legislation unless it includes an explicit ban on taxpayer dollars funding abortions, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

"This is an urgently needed bill," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Thursday, adding that "befitting the importance of this legislation, the process of putting it together has been deliberative, transparent and open... Health insurance reform has come through all that scrutiny and debate a stronger, better bill."

Pelosi said the bill would strip the health insurance industry of a long-standing exemption from antitrust laws covering market allocation, price fixing and bid rigging.

The bill would be paid for by taxing high-income people and cutting some $500 billion in payments to Medicare providers. Democrats issued a statement saying their measure "lowers costs for every patient" and would not add to federal deficits. They put the cost of coverage at under $900 billion over 10 years.

Obama issued a statement saying House Democrats had reached a "critical milestone" on the road toward a health care overhaul, and singled out the proposed government insurance option. He also said the bill "clearly meets two of the fundamental criteria I have set out: It is fully paid for and will reduce the deficit in the long term."

Republican reaction was swift and critical.

Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., head of the Republican Study Committee, issued a statement saying Democrats had produced a "government takeover that will limit choice, competition and innovation in health care while increasing costs and decreasing quality." He said the measure would kill jobs, raise taxes and inflict cuts on a program of private Medicare that provides benefits to millions of seniors.

GOP leaders long ago decided to oppose the approach requested by Obama and taken by Democrats, and health care is expected to figure in next year's congressional election campaign.

Plenty of work remains to be done before a bill could land on Mr. Obama's desk - and there's still no guarantee that Congress can complete the legislation before year's end, as the president wants. If Mr. Obama does sign a health overhaul bill, he will have bucked decades of failed attempts by past administrations, most recently by former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

House leaders hope to finish the bill before Veteran's Day, Nov. 11. The Senate is aiming to start debate sometime in the next several weeks. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is trying to round up support among moderate Democrats for his bill, which includes a modified government insurance option that states could opt out of.

Bills passed by the House and Senate would have to be merged before a final product could be sent to Mr. Obama, and there are a number of differences between the two chambers that would have to be reconciled. Among them are the different approaches to the public plan. The House does not include the opt-out provision for states, and it has more stringent requirements for employers. The Senate would use a tax on high-value insurance plans to pay for the bill, an approach that the House version doesn't have.

[natdef_1]

LEGACY,

I don't know where you studied economics, but your comments are fundamentally flawed.

Your logic of a moral imperative trumping a profit motive because of the common good is the basis of the Communist Manifesto.

How can you argue that healthcare is somehow more deserving of a "moral" marketplace than FOOD PRODUCTION, or HOUSING? What about CLOTHING PRODUCTION? What about TRANSPORTATION?

One could argue, just as you have, that ALL OF THESE are critical to "people's lives," as you put it. It follows, then, that you would have us hand over the means of production in all these areas to the government, so that all the "monkeys" will have what they need without having to do anything to get it. That is COMMUNISM, my friend.

Under the Marxist/Communist belief system, society has a "moral" imperative to provide ALL of life's necessities to EVERY citizen, regardless of their ability (or EFFORT) to acquire these things by themselves.

This system (as nice as it might sound) has been PROVEN not to work in the real world of human beings, where selfishness prevails.

Healthcare is no different than any other marketplace. Put in "communal" requirements and central control, you will LOSE competition, and in so doing, you will LOSE innovation, quality, and ultimately the value that consumers deserve for their money.

At its core, this approach is un-American, and will fail.

[natdef_1]

WRONG ON EVERY COUNT:

Payroll tax because you have a job
Drivers License because you want to drive a car
Business License because you want to own a business
Car Insurance because you want to own a car
Property Tax (same as your "school tax") for Owning Property
Sales Tax because you buy "things"
House title, vehicle title, building permits, etc., all because you OWN THINGS

HEALTH INSURANCE MANDATE: BECAUSE YOU ARE ALIVE. ALIVE. THAT'S ALL. IF YOU ARE ALIVE, YOU ARE FORCED TO PURCHASE INSURANCE.

THAT IS UNPRECENDENTED, NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT.

EVEN THE CBO COULD FIND NO PARALLEL IN HISTORY WHEN THEY DID THEIR REVIEW.

FACE THE FACTS: IF THE GOVERNMENT CAN FORCE YOU TO BUY INSURANCE TO BE ALIVE, IT CAN FORCE YOU TO DO ANYTHING.

[natdef_1]

THIS IS HARDLY PROMOTING COMPETITION, AS YOU LIBS LIKE TO CONTEND...

Under this legislation, the US Government can:

tell insurance companies who they must cover
tell insurance companies what benefits must be offered
tax insurance companies for additional benefits offered
set reimbursement rates
determine which procedures will be allowable under new standards of care
tax insurance company profits
use insurance company taxes to subsidize their "competitive" insurance

and, due to the choice that employers will have whether to offer insurance or pay a penalty, ultimately SUCK all of us into a single-payer system. After all, that is Barack, Nancy, Harry, and Barney's ultimate goal, as they have stated over and over, in case you haven't seen the videotapes.

SETTING AND CONTROLLING THE MARKET IS NOT COMPETITION!

[doc_holliday76]

by natdef_1:
"Zikes, Velma! You don't have to own a Mystery Machine to know that the government F@CK$ UP EVERYTHING IS DOES."
----------------------------------------





This is exactly what we've been hearing since "ronnie the rat" raygun announced his WAR on government, and then the GOP has proven that to be correct every time they get into office, through lack of regulation, lack of accountability, and lack of oversight which gave us the bush/cheney Great Recession of 2007-2009.

Even with the huge increases in the military/industrial complex, seems without a good strategy for endless PNAC neoCON WARmongering, we just funded a select group of WAR PROFITEERS instead of moving our nation forward in the 21st century!

[natdef_1]

Doc, your comments are predictably BORING. You and BeckieBest should spend more time together, since you both seem to enjoy repeating your vapid and banal rants about the PAST...

[doc_holliday76]

by natdef_1:
"Wow -- this is some of the most delusional misanthropic cr@p I've ever heard."
--------------------------------------






Nah....quite the contrary, since it is YOU and your ilk spewing the same relentless attacks labeling PEOPLE as "commies" and "marxists" because they object to our corporatocracy being run by corporate America.

Seems as if YOU need a dictionary and some real education to understand exactly what a misanthrope is, along with your other slurs.

[natdef_1]

DOC, based on what you espouse, one would think you would take "Communist" or "Marxist" as a complement.

It's funny too, because the word "misanthrope" didn't come to mind in response to you, but...if the shoe fits...

[gboyd41]

Good luck finding decent health care under the Democrats plan. God help us all.

[lasvegastea1]

Good job Madame Speaker,

Keep up the good work!

[legacyABQ2]

""" Never before in history has the US Government forced citizens to purchase something JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE ALIVE! """

Letsee..
Taxes. Drivers Licenses. Business licenses. Payroll Tax. Car insurance. School Tax. Property Tax. Road Tax. Speeding Tickets. Parking Tickets.
House Title. Vehicle Title. Registration. Building Permits. Professional License Fees. Income Tax. Sales Tax.

Tell me.. Which one of the above is OPTIONAL?
The gov't has LONG made us pay. "BUY" and "PAY" is a distinction without a difference.
We are required to give the gov't many things. I don't like it either, but it's hardly unprecedented in history.

[natdef_1]

WRONG ON EVERY COUNT:

Payroll tax because you have a job
Drivers License because you want to drive a car
Business License because you want to own a business
Car Insurance because you want to own a car
Property Tax (same as your "school tax") for Owning Property
Sales Tax because you buy "things"
House title, vehicle title, building permits, etc., all because you OWN THINGS

HEALTH INSURANCE MANDATE: BECAUSE YOU ARE ALIVE. ALIVE. THAT'S ALL. IF YOU ARE ALIVE, YOU ARE FORCED TO PURCHASE INSURANCE.

THAT IS UNPRECENDENTED, NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT.

EVEN THE CBO COULD FIND NO PARALLEL IN HISTORY WHEN THEY DID THEIR REVIEW.

FACE THE FACTS: IF THE GOVERNMENT CAN FORCE YOU TO BUY INSURANCE TO BE ALIVE, IT CAN FORCE YOU TO DO ANYTHING.

[legacyABQ2]

No No No. No.

The point is that because the health care companies make so much money, they have a moral obligation to provide a better service. They have COLLUDED over the years to make sure they all battle for the lowest common moral denominator.
Remember: this is healthcare. People's lives. Their livelihood. Healthy socities care for the sick. Even MONKEYS do this.
This is not in the same arena as other businesses. And its not about economic THEORY. Of course profit motive is a good thing. Its the self-interest of Adam Smith, the father of economics.
Economics are not, however, a moral system. They are a technical description of the flow of capitol. Calling those guys "commies" shows you dont know the difference.
And BESIDES; the insurance companies will still be in business. The government program will compete with them. You should know that competition is ESSENTIAL in a free market economy. It drives down prices.
Tell me. Why is it wrong to have healthcare be cheaper?
Why should people die because a company needed that extra .000000001% profit?
Being ethical, and reasonable, by regulating an industry that has grown to be a MENACE to the good of the country, is a fair and just use of the people's government.
Commies have nothing to do with it.

[natdef_1]

THIS IS HARDLY PROMOTING COMPETITION, AS YOU LIBS LIKE TO CONTEND...

Under this legislation, the US Government can:

tell insurance companies who they must cover
tell insurance companies what benefits must be offered
tax insurance companies for additional benefits offered
set reimbursement rates
determine which procedures will be allowable under new standards of care
tax insurance company profits
use insurance company taxes to subsidize their "competitive" insurance

and, due to the choice that employers will have whether to offer insurance or pay a penalty, ultimately SUCK all of us into a single-payer system. After all, that is Barack, Nancy, Harry, and Barney's ultimate goal, as they have stated over and over, in case you haven't seen the videotapes.

SETTING AND CONTROLLING THE MARKET IS NOT COMPETITION!

[bzzpd]

natdef 1 So what are the loan sharks who own these big behemoths doing, sitting on their marxist bottoms collecting all the siphoned off funds from the little guy, who has to use their store. They sit on their fat arse, and collect money for nothing other than loan sharking their cash selling goods to poor idiots who haven't a choice but to shop their store. Most of them don't know what a days work is anymore. But they are the ones you aspire to be....the lazy who prey on the poor for every quarter they can shake the guy down for when he enters their store.

Capitalism only works when there is balance.......when the rich become so greedy that they try to impoverish the middle class.....then the middle class will rebel and ask for socialism. Every organism will fight to survive. Wal-Mart shouldn't have shipped everyone's job to Asia. With no construction...where's a person to turn now.