WASHINGTON – The House voted late Sunday night to approve the Senate healthcare reform package passed Christmas Eve. The new law builds on a platform of pay-for-performance and includes provisions to simplify healthcare administration, calling for the widespread use of healthcare IT.
The House also approved a package of changes to the Senate bill. Effectively, the bill approved Sunday night by the House will be signed into law as early as Tuesday, and will be law until the Senate votes on the change package.
The bill now goes to the Senate for a final vote this week. Experts said Republicans will try to find loopholes for blocking the bill, but Senate and House Democrats agreed to the changes in negotiations prior to Sunday night. Democrat leaders expect the bill to make the final hurdle with enough votes.
The House approved the Senate bill 219 to 212 with no Republican votes. Thirty-four Democrats voted against the bill.
According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the new law will make healthcare coverage available to the 32 million Americans who currently do not have it, establish healthcare exchanges where Americans can purchase healthcare insurance at a lower rate, and "will hold health insurance companies accountable."
The House package of changes stripped the law of deals cut in the Senate that would give some states more Medicaid funding than others.
Estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office last week said the bill would reduce the federal deficit by $143 billion through 2019.
Shortly after the vote President Barack Obama addressed the American people from the White House. "This is what change looks like," he said.
Obama called the new law "major reform, not radical reform."
"Tonight's vote is not a victory for any one party," he said. "It's a victory for the American people and for common sense."
The president is expected to launch a nationwide tour soon to educate Americans about the reform.
The turning point Sunday came as House leaders found a way to quell conservative Democrats' fears over federal spending on abortion. The president announced Sunday he would be issue an executive order after the passage of the law, to reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion.
Republicans argued that the executive order would not be enough to ensure that federal funding will not be used for abortion.
Provider organizations weighed in after the vote, praising the reform.
Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association called the vote "a historic and long overdue step" that will make "a real difference in lives of millions of Americans."
"Healthcare is at a tipping point and the shortcomings within our health care system can no longer be ignored," Umbdenstock said.
Mandy Krauthamer Cohen, executive director of Doctors for America said the new law would expand the coordination of care and strengthen the physician workforce. "While no bill is perfect, I am hopeful today for the future of medicine because of the many ways this bill will improve healthcare in America," she said.
Groups that joined with Doctors for America in supporting the bill included the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Physicians, American Medical Student Association, American Medical Women's Association, American Muslim Health Professionals, Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU Healthcare, Doctors Council SEIU, Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America, HIV Medicine Association, National Medical Association, National Physicians Alliance, National Physicians Alliance-New York, National Doctors Alliance/SEIU Healthcare, Nurse Alliance/SEIU Healthcare, Student National Medical Association, and United Nurses of America-AFSCME.
The American Medical Association called the new law "a step toward providing coverage to all Americans and improving our nation's health system."
"By extending health coverage to the vast majority of the uninsured, improving competition and choice in the insurance marketplace, promoting prevention and wellness, reducing administrative burdens, and promoting clinical comparative effectiveness research, this bill will help patients and their physicians," said J. James Rohack, MD, AMA president.
America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) President and CEO Karen Ignagni issued a warning. "The access expansions are a significant step forward, but this legislation will exacerbate the healthcare costs crisis facing many working families and small businesses," she said.
