Gonna glue myself to the TV and CSPAN to watch every little detail of this historic vote. OpenCongress has the 411 on what's happening today in Your Guide to the House Health Care Debate, but here's the breakdown:
1) Debate of the rule — At 1 p.m. ET, the Chair of the House Committee on Rules, Rep. Louise Slaughter [D, NY-28], will officially start the health care debate by calling up the “rule,” H.Res.1192, that will govern it.
2) Vote on ending debate of the rule — After one hour of debating the rule, the House will take up a “previous question motion,” which, essentially, asks if the House is ready to end debate on the rule and begin debate of the actual legislation. It’s possible that this will be agreed to unanimously by voice vote — these kinds of motions typically are simply agreed to, but with the health care debate it’s not safe to expect the typical.
3) Voting on the rule — Having voted to end debate of the rule, the House will then vote on approving the rule itself. more this way»
One of my first experiences with culture shock here in the United States, was when I first got really ill here after leaving college and finding myself without access to the NYU clinic: I came down with a really bad throat infection and needed medical assistance. So I asked around where was the public clinic and people looked at me like I was insane. This was the end of the 1980s and not only did Ed Koch do away with almost all of them, but most people who'd go to the public clinics would do so because they ahd AIDS.
I was shocked and confused, to say the least. In Puerto Rico I had always had access to medical care. After my parents divorced and my mother found herself needed to go to public assistance, the public clinics where always there for us to use. Sure, they weren't convenient or brand spanking new but they were access to health care for all. At no point in the 20+ years I lived in Puerto Rico --and even as a young adult with no health insurance-- was I ever denied access to health care. more this way»
If you are not looking closely, some of these votes do not make sense given the previous voting record of people like Costa ad Rodriguez. After all, wasn't Ciro Rodriguez a darling of the netroots? And yet when you look closely at their lists of donors, their votes actually become not just sinister but cynical as well (as in the case of John Salazar). So we can't just blame it on the fact that all of these guys happen to be Roman Catholics or members of the Blue Dog Coalition. It's those donors lists for 2008 and 2010 that really paint a clearer picture of their "conservatism".
In that post I was trying to figure out why did a vast majority of Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Los Siete Infames, voted with Stupak. Am too much of a cynic to believe they were voting with their pure Catholic hearts. What I found out at the time was that all seven had been heavily funded by the insurance industry.
You know people have crossed a line with a reputable news organization like McClatchy deems it newsworthy to print State of the health care debate: Talk radio attacks an 11-year old. In it they describe how Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin have viciously attacked the 11 yr-old orphan by lack of health care insurance. The story of his mother is heartbreaking:
Tifanny Owens died in June 2007 of pulmonary hypertension, which is described as high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs that can lead to heart failure. The disease is considered rare. While there's no cure, it can be treated.
The treatments can cost as much as $100,000 a year and must be "consistent and constant," said Katie Kroner, the director of advocacy and awareness for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association.
"It's extremely important to have health coverage," she said.
Owens was an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant when she became sick in September 2006. As she became sicker, she missed work and was eventually fired, leaving her without health insurance. She was treated twice in an emergency room and died at age 27 after a week of unconsciousness. Gina Owens has custody of Marcelas and his two younger sisters.
Gina Owens said her daughter didn't qualify for Medicaid. State officials said that without knowing the details, it was impossible to speculate on whether Tifanny Owens would have qualified.
Tifanny Owens might have been eligible for Washington state's basic health care plan, which is aimed at the working poor. The plan has had a long waiting list for some time, said Sharon Michael of the Washington state Health Care Authority.
"Right now, we have 100,000 people on the wait list," Michael said.
The neo-con punditocracy not only doesnt believe the story, but Beck insisted, without actually giving specifics, that Gina Owens had other alternatives. Limbaugh and Malkin had the nerve to parrot the same and even worse: that there was no proof his mother would have lived longer anyway since her condition is allegedly incurable.
It's not a new "third way out" but a reconciliation bill. It goes after the Ben Nelson bribery FMAP provision by eliminating it and expanding Medicare coverage to all states --trying to make up for one of the biggest mistakes during the Health Care Reform negotiations. Yet, by making no mention of the anti-abortion provision or the public option, it leaves the first one intact and the second one out of this bill.
The only interesting addition is the hot-button government oversight and regulation proposal for a Health Insurance Rate Authority. By calling upon the need for more transparency and fiscal responsibility, it kind of smacks every obstructionist that has invoked those two arguments in their efforts to stop health care reform.
Yet am with Ezra and Nathan : Will this bill really make a difference? My gut instinct hasn't been screaming no since last night. It's been completely revolted since the day universal health care & insurance was not declared as a mission and a right during these negotiations. And as Stupak is still in, immigrants are still discriminated from coverage and the public option is out, there's still no reason to cheer.
The leader of the National Organization for Women (NOW) excoriated the language in the health bill curtailing federal support for insurance plan covering abortions, which was inserted to win the 60th vote of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).
"The so-called health care reform bill now before the Senate, with the addition of Majority Leader Harry Reid's Manager's Amendment, amounts to a health insurance bill for half the population and a sweeping anti-abortion law for the rest of us," NOW President Terry O'Neill said in a statement.
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