By AFRO Staff
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), is one of the co-sponsors of the Affordable Health Care for America Act.(Courtesy Photo)
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(November 1, 2009) - House Democrats on Thursday, Oct. 29 introduced H.R.3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. This bill represents a combination of three prior bills which now includes a public option that will compete alongside private insurance plans.
“Leaders of all political parties, starting over a century ago with President Theodore Roosevelt, have called and fought for health care and health insurance reform” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said in her opening remarks to members of Congress.
“Today we are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all Americans — laying the foundation for a brighter future for generations to come.”
Some of the immediate reforms proposed by the 1,990-page bill include:
Elimination of lifetime limits on coverage,
Limitations on pre-existing condition exclusions,
Option of extending dependent coverage for uninsured young adults until their 27th birthday and
Ends denials of treatment for children with deformities.
Opponents to health care reform, including former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, who resigned in July after a failed vice presidential bid, have remained vocal with their dissent.
“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care,” Palin wrote in an August post on her Facebook profile.
“Such a system is downright evil.”
Since then Democrats have gone on the offensive by “calling out” Palin and others on the Web site of the Democratic National Committee, claiming opponents are spreading lies about health care reform.
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement that “this bill ensures that every American has access to high-quality, affordable care that meets their needs, while also working to slow the staggering growth of health care costs.”
In a statement, President Obama congratulated House Democrats for their commitment, calling the bill a “critical milestone in the effort to reform our health care system.”
“As I’ve said throughout this process, a public option that competes with private insurers is the best way to ensure choice and competition that are so badly needed in today’s market” Obama said, “and the House bill clearly meets two of the fundamental criteria I have set out: it is fully paid for and will reduce the deficit in the long term.”