The House approves the Senate bill. Not a single Republican voted for it, but 219 Democrats did – and by a vote of 219-212, the House of Representatives sent the Senate’s version of landmark healthcare legislation toward President Obama’s desk. The President could sign the bill into law as early as March 23.
But the fight is not over. The House of Representatives also passed a collection of amendments to the Senate bill by a 220-211 margin, but the Senate must also approve this reconciliation bill – exactly as it is worded. If that doesn’t happen, then guess what … there will be another vote on the Senate version of the bill in the House.
“If those people think they’re only going to vote on this once, they’re nuts,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said on Bloomberg Television March 20. Hatch claims that Senate Republicans have the votes to force a modification of the bill passed on March 21 and boot it back to the House for a second vote.
Will the reforms be overturned? Twelve state attorney generals have indicated that they will contest the bill on these grounds the moment President Obama signs it. What are the odds the Supreme Court will throw the reforms out? Probably pretty slim. Look at the precedents of Medicare and Medicaid. When both those federal programs were enacted, the Court twice upheld a broad federal role in health care.
The big reforms will take effect in 2014. If you are looking forward to health insurance reform, you will have to wait a while before many of the big changes occur.
What changes are about to happen in 2010? These new rules would go into effect presently thanks to the new law.
New taxes? Yes – starting in 2013. Approval of these reforms will also bring a new 3.8% tax on investment income for individuals earning more than $200,000 and households earning more than $250,000, so the effective capital gains rate will be 23.8% for these taxpayers in 2013. Also, these taxpayers will be able to keep 8.8% less of the income resulting from taxable stock investments. The Medicare tax rate on households with income over $250,000 will also rise in 2013, from 1.45% to 2.35%.
A huge savings? Maybe. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the health care reforms will reduce the federal deficit by between $65-118 billion over the next decade and by more than $1 trillion in the decade after that. We’ll see
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