Two down, one to go. Obamacare has been passed by the U.S. House Ways and Means and the Education and Labor Committees. The Energy and Commerce Committee is the last hurdle before the bill can enter the house floor. A few days ago there was a story that 10 Democrats in the Energy and Commerce Committee were against the bill in its current form and would be voting NO if changes were not made, in effect keeping the bill off of the house floor. So, we are left to wait and see if there was any truth to the story or if since the other two committees are full speed ahead, enough arms will be twisted to send it to the floor. See the links below to other stories on the bill, including one from the New York Times where Sen. Chris Dodd (D), says that private health insurance plans would have to offer coverage to those with pre-existing conditions and forego caps on lifetime reimbursement amounts. Seems an awful tough way to stay in business if you're Blue Cross/ Blue Shield, etc. If they go out of business, where will I go to get insured? I guess their is always the public option (a.k.a ONLY OPTION post-Obamacare passage)
Update/ Tuesday 7/21: Obama will be inviting the committee on Energy and Commerce to the White House this afternoon for tea and arm twisting. Charlie Rangel will be there with bells on and as he said in the article, Obama has invited the committee to show that he is in charge. In charge of the bill he doesn't know a whole lot about.
The Bill
No pre-existing conditions and no caps on reimbursement.
Forced Vaccinations
My dad got an automated phone call from some left-wing group a few weeks ago asking him in effect to show up to a meeting at Dan Lipinski's (my congressman's) office because he "wasn't being a true democrat." Apparently my blue-dog pro-life Democrat congressman ain't going along with Obamacare, and that was before we (he?) knew about the subsidized abortions covered in the bill.
ReplyDeleteIf Obamacare doesn't radically change in these committee meetings, it WON'T pass. If my congressman won't support it, no way are the other more conservative Dems and Republicans supporting it.