President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law this week, but the bill will only be a marker for the final version to be passed under the reconciliation process.
That process begins on Tuesday, when the Senate starts considering the final version, a reconciliation bill also passed by the House in a second vote on Sunday, according to Physician Hospitals of America.
The Senate will have 20 hours for debate, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, PHA reported, adding that Majority Leader Harry Reid has assured members of the House that the reconciliation package will pass the Senate, where a simple majority of 51 votes are needed.
Once passed, some provisions would go into effect this year, such as a new federal program to cover people whose health conditions make them uninsurable, tax credits for small businesses and bans on lifetime caps on coverage and on retroactive cancellation of insurance policies for anything but outright fraud.
But much of the legislation wouldn’t start to take effect until 2014, including much of the bill’s expansion of health insurance to 32 million more people. The CBO estimated that 95 percent of legal U.S. residents would have insurance by 2019, compared with 83 percent today.
About a dozen state attorneys general are planning to file lawsuits challenging the bill, focusing on its requirement that all Americans carry health insurance policies. Those who don’t carry health insurance would have to pay a fee not to exceed either $695 a year or 2.5 percent of income.
The American Hospital Association and American Medical Association issued statements supporting the House’s action, but the AMA called for changes in the bill’s plans for an Independent Payment Advisory Board, saying it could promulgate “misguided payment cuts that undermine access to care and destabilize healthcare delivery.”
In a statement, Richard L. Clarke, president and CEO of Healthcare Financial Management Association, noted that “the pending passage of healthcare reform should add urgency to the efforts of healthcare professionals to reduce cost while improving quality.”
Read the Wall Street Journal’s report on health reform.
