The best thing about today's vote:

[ProSense]

There is no turning back. The critics are now debating which is better the Senate bill or House bill.


FACTBOX-Major differences in Senate, House healthcare bills

<...>

PUBLIC OPTION

The House bill includes a new government health insurance plan that would compete with private insurers on the exchange. The public option would have to meet the same coverage requirements as private insurers.

The Senate bill has no public option. However it requires the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the health policies for 8 million federal workers and their families, to contract with private insurance companies to offer policies on the exchanges.

Both bills also provide for creation of nonprofit cooperatives to provide medical coverage to members.

FINANCING

The biggest difference between the two bills is in how they are financed.

The House bill would impose a 5.4 percent surtax on individuals earning more than $500,000 a year and couples making more than $1 million. It also raises money by imposing a 2.5 percent excise tax on medical devices.

The Senate bill includes a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans. It also raises payroll taxes for Medicare, the government health insurance plan for the elderly, to 2.35 percent from the current 1.45 percent for individuals earning $200,000 or more and for couples earning $250,000 or more. The Senate bill includes special fees on insurers, drug companies and medical device makers and it imposes a 10-percent tax on indoor tanning services.

ABORTION

Another contentious issue is likely to be abortion. Both the Senate and the House bills bar the use of federal funds to finance abortion.

The House bill contains tougher language that would require anyone seeking coverage for elective abortions to purchase separate insurance riders.

The Senate plan would let states opt out of including plans with abortion coverage on the exchanges and require anyone with abortion coverage to write two separate premium checks -- one for the abortion coverage and one for the rest.

MEDICAID COVERAGE

The Senate would make Medicaid, the government healthcare program for the poor, available to everyone with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level. The House would expand the Medicaid program to everyone with incomes up to 150 percent of poverty. The poverty level for an individual in 2009 stands at $10,830 and for a family of four at $22,050. Many states have eligibility requirements well below that level.

COVERAGE MANDATES

Both the Senate and the House require most individuals to obtain health insurance.

Both bills impose a penalty on those who fail to get coverage. The House would impose a 2.5-percent penalty tax on income up to the average cost of an insurance policy. The Senate would phase in a $750-per-person annual penalty up to $2,250 per family or a penalty of 2 percent of taxable income, whichever is greater. The full penalty would take effect in 2016.

EMPLOYER MANDATES

The House bill requires employers with payrolls above $750,000 to provide health insurance to workers. Those who fail to do so face a penalty of 8 percent of payroll. Employers with payrolls between $500,000 and $750,000 pay fines on a sliding scale of 2 percent, 4 percent and 6 percent of payroll.

The Senate bill has no employer mandate. But large firms with more than 50 workers would have to pay a fine of $750 annually per worker if any of their employees obtain federally subsidized coverage on the exchange.

Workers who have employer-sponsored plans with costs that are deemed unaffordable -- exceeding 9.8 percent of salary -- may drop that coverage and purchase federally subsidized insurance on the exchange. In those cases, the employer would have to pay a fine up to $3,000 per worker receiving the insurance subsidy.

In some cases the Senate bill would require employers with health plans to provide cash vouchers to lower-income workers to obtain insurance on the exchange.

On to reconciling the two in conference.

[rgbecker]

1. That'll be a snap..just like getting up a chimney!

[Goldstein1984]

2. I was going to say that the best thing about the vote is

it's over.

I didn't support the bill. Improving it in the House/Senate version will take an act by a god I don't believe exists.

All I know is that my wife, children and grandchildren are very lucky: They are Alaska Natives, and they get free medical care.

[bvar22]

3. Wall Street LOVES it.

I guess thats something.

[DJ13]

4. For some Dems thats all that matters

[ProSense]

5. Say anthing

fact-free.

[bvar22]

10. Fact Free?

What about my post was "Fact Free"?

Here is my post: "Wall Street Loves It"

Are you going to insist that that is "fact free"?
You DO know what has happened to Health Insurance Industry stocks the last few days?

But, thats OK coming from you.

There are still people on DU insisting that Obama did NOT campaign on the Public Option.
LOL

[ProSense]

11. "Are you going to insist that that is "fact free"?"

Absolutely and completely fact-free.

[bvar22]

13. Ho..Ho...Ho....

I have some Christmas Compassion for you tonight.
I know how hard it must be to sell the Christmas Turkey of a Health Care Fraud.
I'm glad I'm not working tonight.

Merry Christmas.
:hi:

[treestar]

18. You do know that if Wall street crashes the country does too?

I don't get this diffuse hatred of "Wall Street." Remember 1929? And the recent crash. People lost money, including the middle class. Real people want the stock market up, not down. Wall St. represents a measure of the overall economy.

[Cha]

6. Yep it's a done deal and I don't care how much

anyone ignores the positives and focuses on any of the negatives..it's a foundation that's never been put into place before and here's to it getting better in Conference with the House.

[MiniMe]

8. And then it has to go through 1 more votge.

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that it is to this point. But it has to go through another vote in the house and another vote in the Senate before it can get to Obama's desk.

[Cha]

12. Edge of the seat stuff

with our flighty crew.

[rwheeler31]

7. I am thrilled it is out of the Senate. The conferees

know the ins and outs, it will be better and it will pass.

[depakid]

9. Best thing is that Blanche Lincoln, Reid and a lot of Blue Dogs likely won't be back in 2011

So maybe we can begin to place the onus of corrupt and inept policy choices back onto Republicans in time for 2012.

[CrispyQ]

14. You are right - once mandated insurance is passed, there will be no turning back.

We will have further entrenched the for-profit health insurance companies in our health "care" system - companies, that are largely responsible for the disastrous situation we are currently in. For those who claim that this bill will eventually lead to single payer, I ask, how? In his September speech, Obama basically told us that we couldn't do SP because our system was already built on the for-profit industry & it's too big to change.

There are those on the left who believe that the only way to fix the system is through a single-payer system like Canada's -- (applause) -- where we would severely restrict the private insurance market and have the government provide coverage for everybody. On the right, there are those who argue that we should end employer-based systems and leave individuals to buy health insurance on their own.

I've said -- I have to say that there are arguments to be made for both these approaches. But either one would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have. Since health care represents one-sixth of our economy, I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn't, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/obama-health-care-speech_n_281265.html

--emphasis added

So now we're going to give them 30+ million new customers. Arghh! :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[ProSense]

16. "So now we're going to give them 30+ million new customers. " That number is completely bogus.

More than 30 million people are going to gain coverage, including more than 15 million in Medicaid.

Still, why do people think the other 15 million people are going to object joining the more than 150 million people who already get coverage this way?

[CrispyQ]

17. Thanks for that excellent source backing up your claim that the number is bogus.

Regardless of the number, the fact remains, that the for-profit health insurance vampires, whose obligation is to their shareholders, not patients needing care, will be further entrenched in our health 'care' system, making it even more difficult from which to break free in the future.

I've read enough of your posts throughout the day to realize that nothing I write is going to convince you that this bill is shit & nothing you write is going to convince me that it's good. Only time will tell. I hope I'm wrong, but based on their past behavior, I have serious misgivings.

[ProSense]

19. That's the problem: Why do you need a source?

Why don't you know that Medicaid will expanded to add 15 million more people? You're making definitive statements denouncing a bill you do not fully understand.

The health care legislation, which President Obama has called his top domestic priority, seeks to extend health benefits to more than 30 million people who are currently uninsured. The bill would require nearly all Americans to obtain health insurance, or pay financial penalties for failing to do so, and it would provide federal subsidies to help moderate-income Americans buy private coverage.

About half of the people who would gain coverage, some 15 million, would do so through a broad expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for low-income Americans, and growth in the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

link

[Laelth]

15. The worst thing about today's vote:

There may be no turning back.

Kill the bill.

Forcing people to buy insurance is no more the answer to a failed health care system than forcing people to buy houses is the solution to homelessness.

:dem:

-Laelth