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One More Vote

One more vote, one more signature, and that’s it. We can stop talking about health care reform bills and start talking about health care reform laws.

The Senate on Thursday passed the reconciliation bill to amend the health care reforms recently signed into law, bringing the health care debate one step closer to an end.

The package of changes passed by a vote of 56 to 43 and now goes to the House for a final vote. The House will take up the measure this evening.

The House has the final vote because there were some minor wording changes to the Senate bill. (Those were on provisions relating to student loans, not to health care.) That vote, going on now, should not be in any doubt given that it isn’t substantively different than what they passed Sunday night.

Some Republicans, of course, want to campaign on repealing the bill. President Obama’s response:

“My attitude is, go for it!,” Obama told a cheering crowd in Iowa City, Iowa. “If they want to have that fight, we can have it!”

The president also said he doesn’t believe voters “are going to put the insurance industry back in the driver’s seat. We’ve already been there — we’re not going back!”

There are good reasons to want to have that fight. After all, since the House passed reform and President Obama signed it, the law has gotten more popular as people assess what’s actually in it.

And with key provisions going into effect before November’s elections, who’s really going to be campaigning on “I’ll pass a law that lets insurance companies deny kids with pre-existing conditions”? How about “I’ll reopen the Medicare Part D donut hole”?

It’s still going to be a fight, but right now, working people have beat the insurance companies.

Tags: health care reform