The Morning After, Part 1: What Happened, and what's next?

(photo taken from footage from CNN)

Last night the healthcare bill passed by Senate in December passed in the Congress. With it, another bill with a set of fixes for this original bill were passed through the process of "reconciliation" a procedural use. The bill including the fixes also needs to pass in the Senate. The key here is that the process of reconciliation will also be used to pass the fixes through Senate.

This bill passed after President Obama was able to make a deal with pro-life Democrats in which he wrote an executive order guaranteeing that no taxpayer dollars would be used to fund abortions. Following this, the Republicans still made this their issue - claiming that an executive order was not law, and that the bill would still allow federal funds to be spent on abortion. Despite their last ditch efforts to use procedural motions - the bill made it through.

Many are barking at the high cost of the bill - arguing that it will throw us deeper into debt. 

There is some truth - by no means is the bill cheap. The price tag, as estimated by the CBO, is $940 billion. However it is important that one looks at the net effect on the budget - at the end of the day, it costs money to make money, and frankly, Healthcare is a lucrative business. As a matter of fact, within the first 10 years of the bill taking effect, it is expected to lower the budget deficit by $138 billion dollars. Also, it's important to understand that there is a cost involved if you DON'T provide health care. According to this article on CNN

"Not providing insurance is not free; the annual health care expenditure for an uninsured adult is $1,800, according to a Kaiser Foundation study in 2004."

The important thing to understand is that the costs are not as simple as any one party will make it out to seem. Obviously, the plan will cost money. But the benefit is important - Americans deserve healthcare. 

So, what are the next steps? The Healthcare bill has passed in both the Senate and the House. The Fixes on the bill have only been passed in the House must be passed in the Senate now. The fixes to the bill are available to the public here.

That process - 

1. The Senate must vote on the changes made to the bill (vote by reconciliation, which only requires a 51 vote majority in the Senate, which the Democrats have)
2. If the Senate passes this, President Obama must sign it into law. (Currently the bill could be signed into the law as is, but President Obama will not sign it without the fixes along with it.) 
3.  If Senate does not pass this, there will have to be another vote in the House of Representatives. 

This may not end the process. States with officials that do not want this plan will probably challenge the bill in the courts to try and show that it is unconstitutional. Last night was one major victory in the fight for health care - however, the fight is not over.

This article is a good way to learn what exactly is included in the bill. The original bill is quite lengthy to read.

-Sahil