HEALTH CARE BILL PASSES HOUSE NARROWLY, ALL EYES NOW ON SENATE
News Date November 10, 2009
Democratic Leaders were jubilant on Saturday evening following the passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962), landmark health care legislation this weekend. After hours of debate, the highly-anticipated vote resulted in a slim passage of 220-215. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against the legislation, along with one Republican, Representative Joseph Cao (R-LA). All attention now turns to the Senate for to take action major healthcare reform, which according to recent reports, will not likely act on any legislation before December, if even before the end of the year. Several Members have expressed serious doubts of the likelihood of the Senate even taking up the House-passed version, including Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who remarked that the bill was “dead on arrival.”
Last Friday, the National Farmers Union (NFU) expressed strong support for the legislation in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). In the letter, NFU President Roger Johnson said the legislation, “includes provisions that would control health care costs for the self-employed farmers, ranchers and small businesses that dominate rural economies. The public health insurance option created by H.R. 3962 will not only dramatically increase the availability of healthcare to our producers but provide competition in under populated areas that have been historically dominated by very few private insurers. Eliminating antitrust exemptions for health insurers will further increase competition and break up regional insurance market monopolies.” Johnson is a former NASDA President and Commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Agriculture. (Contact: David Hickey)