House Passes Health Reform Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a health reform bill Saturday night by a vote of 220-215.  The Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) makes many changes to the current health system. The key purpose of the bill is the expansion of health coverage to the uninsured and underinsured through subsidies financed by increasing taxes on high earners ($500,000 individual, $1,000,000 married filing jointly) and cutting costs in the current system. The Congressional Budget Office predicts the 10-year cost of these changes is $1.054 trillion. The bill does not make significant changes to medical liability laws or address the flawed Medicare SGR formula.

Senate leaders have been working to complete their own version of a health refrom bill that will be different from the House bill. If the Senate is able to pass a bill, then members from both chambers will have to reconcile the two different bills into a single bill that would then have to pass both chambers.