Democrats on track for $940bn health bill

DEMOCRATS in the House of Representatives are pushing to the brink of passage a landmark $940 billion (€690bn) healthcare 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.

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 due later last night set the stage for a House vote on Sunday, and Democrats have already signalled they plan to go it alone, without Republican support.

The ‘Grand Old Party’ has steadfastly opposed Obama’s plan from the outset.

It would restructure a sixth of the economy, covering 95% 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 penalising 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. Insurance companies would face unprecedented federal regulation. Healthcare 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 $138bn (€101bn) over its first 10 years, and continue to drive down the red ink thereafter. 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.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was already pleased. “We loved their number,” said the California Democrat, referring to the budget estimate.

The Democrat leaders appeared confident of getting the 216 votes they need to pass the bill as their drive took on a growing sense of inevitability.

But House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said his party’s lawmakers will “do everything that we can do to make sure this bill never, ever, ever passes”.

The legislation would be vulnerable to attack after it passes, since the biggest changes would be phased in slowly. The major expansion of coverage would not come until 2014, when new health insurance marketplaces open for business.