INTERNATIONAL

The Health Care Victory

Hadiza Wada, DBA March 27, 2010

President Obama has recorded an important and historic victory on the 23^rd of March when he signed into law a health care reform bill passed earlier in the week by the House of Representatives. The President signed the measure, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in the East Room of the White House, flanked by key players within the Democratic Party. It was not an easy achievement, but it was worth the fight; that was how many from within the party see it, while the Republican Party members vowed to try to undo some of its provision, even if at state level.

In signing the bill, the president cited many people he had met earlier who had described their individual ordeals. And as he was about to sign the act, he had this to say:

“Here, in this country, we shape our own destiny. That is what we do. That is who we are. That is what makes us the United States of America. And we have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”

The health care legislation which we have followed closely in this publication has scored a grand success last Sunday the 21^st when it was eventually passed by the House of Representatives. The bill passed with a 219-212 majority vote. As we explained in our last article on this issue, the Democratic Party decided to use a process called reconciliation, where legislation is passed by a simple majority vote, owing to the stiff resistance of the Republican Party, and the loss through by-election of a 60-40 majority that the Democratic Party used to enjoy at the inception of the Administration.

It was a very close vote that usurped a lot of time and energy from top membership and leadership of the Democratic Party. In fact owing to the importance that the ruling party attaches to the success of the vote, a Presidential Trip was rescheduled. Top party members requested that President Obama be at home helping to push through the legislation. He had earlier on been scheduled to visit Indonesia.

.

.

The New York Times described the Act as “the most expansive social legislation enacted in decades.” This is partly because it touches directly the life of millions of Americans, a task that many presidents before him has tried to implement but were obstructed by one challenge or another, beginning with President Harry Truman.

A historic occasion indeed, was what many described the legislation, though it was passed in split vote, where all 178 Republicans opposed it, along with 34 Democrats. Having tried to woo members of the Republican Party in the past without much success, the President Saturday visited Capitol Hill to persuade some members of his own party to vote for the bill. He was described as spending most of the final week before the vote convincing individual members who were either against or were yet undecided.

While there were many issues that individual members had pointed to as the reason they were against the bill, one of the overriding reasons for members of congress within both parties including the democrats was because of the upcoming legislative elections in the country. They soon have to face the electorate, and were therefore feeling the pulse of their constituency as they move along cautiously.

The other publicized issue among conservative democrats, an issue the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dealt with intensely, was their concern that the bill did not do enough to block the use of tax payer and federal fund to benefit those who seek abortion.

Some of the key benefits of the new law include (a) extension of health insurance to an estimated 32 million Americans who otherwise do not have one (b) The requirement that everyone buy health insurance or face a fine, so as to save tax payers too much money spent in using emergency rooms to access health care by the uninsured (c) The provision of tax benefit for the low income earners to help them use the proceed to buy the insurance and; including a clause for exempting the poor (d) And an extension of children age from 21 to 26 as the age limit for keeping children on parent’s health insurance.