House Health-Care Reform Bill Includes Public Option
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced today a health-care reform bill that includes a government insurance option and a historic expansion of Medicaid
"Today we are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all Americans," Pelosi said, describing a bill that she said would insure 36 million more Americans, the Washington Post reported. "We are putting forth a bill that reflects our best values and addresses our greatest challenges."
The bill includes a version of the "public option" preferred by moderates and raises Medicaid eligibility levels to 150 percent of the federal poverty level for all adults, a steeper increase than in earlier drafts, the Post reported.
The House legislation aims to provide health insurance of one form or another to 96 percent of all Americans at an expected cost just below $900 billion over 10 years, without increasing the federal budget deficit for at least 20 years, House Democrats told the Post.
Republican lawmakers quickly dismissed the bill as an attempted government takeover of healthcare.
The legislation "opens the doors to quality medical care for those who were shut out of the system for far too long," Pelosi said.
Under the House plan, health care providers would be allowed to negotiate reimbursement rates with the federal government, Democratic leadership aides told CNN.
The bill would cut the federal deficit by roughly $30 billion over the next decade, Pelosi’s office told CNN. The measure is financed largely through a combination of a tax surcharge on wealthy Americans and spending constraints in Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare expenditures would be cut by 1.3 percent annually.
