Health Insurance Reform Legislative Update
At approximately 4:00 P.M. this afternoon, Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on his manager’s amendment to the Senate health reform bill. Folks, we are nearing the finish line.
Today’s events mark a crucial first step towards having an up-or-down vote in the Senate on health insurance reform. After months of back and forth in committee and weeks of debate on the floor, this morning Senator Reid filed a motion to end debate and vote on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The Senate version of health insurance reform would achieve the goals President Obama set out at the beginning of this debate. It would provide more stability and security to people who have insurance by ending some of the insurance companies worst practices like denying someone coverage because of a pre-existing condition or canceling someone’s coverage when they get sick. It will extend coverage to 31 million more Americans, providing coverage options for the uninsured through a new health insurance exchange, while making that coverage affordable through generous subsidies. And it would lower costs for families and businesses by increasing choice and competition. This legislation will reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars in the next 10 years, and it will bend the cost curve downward.
What happens now? Sixty senators must vote to end debate, and then 51 Senators must vote to pass this historic bill. The exact timeline is anyone’s guess, but Senate Democrats are working around the clock to pass the bill before Christmas.
Once the bill passes, the action moves to conference committee. Members of the House and Senate conference committee will create a final piece of legislation (blending elements of House and Senate bills) that will be voted on one more time by both chambers. Upon final passage, Congress will send that final bill to President Obama’s desk for his signature.
While we have a few steps left to take and some twists and turns to go, here’s what we can be sure of: President Obama will sign into law the most significant piece of social and economic legislation since Social Security, and the largest expansion of health care coverage since the creation of Medicare in 1965.
The work OFA volunteers and supporters have done and continue to do to ensure President Obama has the opportunity to sign this historic legislation into law is nothing short of amazing. Millions have taken action as part of OFA health insurance reform campaign since we kicked-off our effort on June 6th. And since August, Organizing for America has generated over 1,000,000 calls to members of Congress to demonstrate support for reform.
You’ve written, you called, you’ve visited, you haven’t given up. Thank you. This holiday season, we’re going to give America the gift of health insurance reform. We are going to get this done.
Addisu Demissie is the national political director for Organizing for America.
At approximately 4:00 P.M. this afternoon, Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on his manager’s amendment to the Senate health reform bill. Folks, we are nearing the finish line.
Today’s events mark a crucial first step towards having an up-or-down vote in the Senate on health insurance reform. After months of back and forth in committee and weeks of debate on the floor, this morning Senator Reid filed a motion to end debate and vote on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The Senate version of health insurance reform would achieve the goals President Obama set out at the beginning of this debate. It would provide more stability and security to people who have insurance by ending some of the insurance companies worst practices like denying someone coverage because of a pre-existing condition or canceling someone’s coverage when they get sick. It will extend coverage to 31 million more Americans, providing coverage options for the uninsured through a new health insurance exchange, while making that coverage affordable through generous subsidies. And it would lower costs for families and businesses by increasing choice and competition. This legislation will reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars in the next 10 years, and it will bend the cost curve downward.
What happens now? Sixty senators must vote to end debate, and then 51 Senators must vote to pass this historic bill. The exact timeline is anyone’s guess, but Senate Democrats are working around the clock to pass the bill before Christmas.
Once the bill passes, the action moves to conference committee. Members of the House and Senate conference committee will create a final piece of legislation (blending elements of House and Senate bills) that will be voted on one more time by both chambers. Upon final passage, Congress will send that final bill to President Obama’s desk for his signature.
While we have a few steps left to take and some twists and turns to go, here’s what we can be sure of: President Obama will sign into law the most significant piece of social and economic legislation since Social Security, and the largest expansion of health care coverage since the creation of Medicare in 1965.
The work OFA volunteers and supporters have done and continue to do to ensure President Obama has the opportunity to sign this historic legislation into law is nothing short of amazing. Millions have taken action as part of OFA health insurance reform campaign since we kicked-off our effort on June 6th. And since August, Organizing for America has generated over 1,000,000 calls to members of Congress to demonstrate support for reform.
You’ve written, you called, you’ve visited, you haven’t given up. Thank you. This holiday season, we’re going to give America the gift of health insurance reform. We are going to get this done.
Addisu Demissie is the national political director for Organizing for America.