The health care debate continues in the Senate and it sounds like some sort of deal has been reached that may trade the public option (basically a plan to give people the choice of buying into a government insurance program) for something else. We’re not sure what that “something else” is yet. The Senators aren’t saying. The one question we will ask: is this a good deal for young people? Stay tuned.
One piece of good news. Remember when the House of Representatives added a provision in its version of the health care reform bill that would severely restrict the ability of women to get reproductive health care? It was known as the Stupak Amendment (for the guy who sponsored it, Congressman Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Michigan). Lots of people were not pleased when it passed in the House and vowed to fight it in the Senate and beyond. Well, the Senate just considered an identical amendment (offered by Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat from Nebraska) that would have barred any health plan purchased with the help of any federal subsidies from covering abortion. It failed in the Senate by a vote of 45 to 54.
So add that to the list of things the House and the Senate need to work out before we get a final final bill. We’ve got a long way to go.
UPDATE: About that deal. Senator Harry Reid, the Majority Leader (i.e., the guy in charge), put out a statement that says, in part, “It is a consensus that includes a public option and will help ensure the American people win in two ways: one, insurance companies will face more competition, and two, the American people will have more choices.” Still waiting on the details. Early reports said no public option. Senator Reid says public option. As always: stay tuned.
Tags: health care reform, Senate
I’ve searched from Article 1 to Article 7 of the Constitution. I’ve looked high and low from the Bill of Rights to the other 17 Amendments.
I can’t seem to find Health Care or Health Insurance anywhere within the Constitution.
Wonder why a 501C would be pushing for National Health Care when it’s unconstitutional and it’s a Democratic goal. Last time I checked we live in a Constitutional Representative Republic or a Democratic Republic.
When did we become the United Socialist States of America?
“If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare,
- they may take the care of religion into their own hands;
- they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury;
- they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union;
- they may assume the provision of the poor;
- they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads;
in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress…. Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.” — James Madison