Final Version of House Healthcare Bill Available for 72 Hours
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House Democrats posted Tuesday a "manager's amendment" to health-care legislation online, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The release of the final version of the nearly 2,000-page health package clears the way for a vote by the full chamber as soon as this weekend.
Democratic leaders are still talking with their members, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said, declining to indicate when the debate on the measure would begin, the Washington Post reported.
"With the completion of the Manager's Amendment to the Affordable Health Care for America Act, we are now in the final stage of moving this critical bill through the House," Hoyer said in a statement. "We pledged we would make this amendment available for 72 hours before a vote. Now that the Amendment is posted, the clock has started."
"We are continuing to discuss this legislation with our Members, and I will bring it to the Floor once we have consensus and in keeping with our 72 hour pledge," Hoyer Said.
The amendment includes a provision to raise $24 billion by shutting down a biofuels tax credit, a provision that fills a revenue hole to keep the bill deficit-neutral in the first 10 years, the WSJ said.
Other changes to the bill include the addition of a proposed $1 billion grant program for states, in coordination with the federal government, to annually review the premiums of insurance companies, the WSJ said. States could then make a recommendation about whether insurers should be excluded from health insurance "exchanges" if they were found to overcharge for premiums.
In keeping with their pledge to allow 72 hours for citizens and lawmakers to examine the bill, House Democrats could now bring up the measure for a vote later this week.
"Now that the amendment is posted, the clock has started," Hoyer said in a statement.
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