Current Event #6

House health bill ready for its closeup-

The house's health care bill was revieled at 10:30 am on thursday. The bill includes and government insurance option and significant expansion of Medicaid. Drug makers are facing somewhere between $125 billion and $150 billion in cuts. That is almost twice the $80 billion they agreed to under the White House Deal. The bill covers 36 million additional people and comes in at just under $900 million. It would require everyone to sign up by 2013 through their employer, the government, or an exchange. Lawmakers say there will be a temporary government program to help people turned down by private insurers during the transition period. The bill will also include a "millionaire's tax" which would tax couples with a combined income over $1 million and individuals with incomes over $500,000.

The revealing of the new bill doesn't necessarily mean that it is ready to be signed or is believed to have majority vote already. Instead it presents information with the hope of persuading enough people to have majority by next week. I think this bill has a better chance at receiving majority vote than the bill that contained the proposal for public option and Medicair rates favored by the left.