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Speaker Pelosi introduces $894 billion health care bill that calls for public health option
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., today introduced a sweeping health care reform bill that calls for expanding health insurance coverage through subsidies for health insurance and a public health care option.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) would cost $894 billion over 10 years and ensure that 96% of Americans have quality, affordable health insurance coverage, according to a press release from the office of U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would reduce the federal deficit by at least $30 million over 10 years, the release said.
The bill is a combination of three bills passed by House committees during the summer and “embodies President Obama’s key goals for health reform,” which include slowing the growth of costs, spurring competition in the health insurance marketplace, safeguarding choice of health plans and health providers, and ensuring access to quality, accordable health care, the release said.
The Pelosi bill marks a major milestone in health care reform efforts, Rep. Miller said in the release.
“We are closer than ever to guaranteeing every American access to quality, affordable health insurance and giving middle-class families and businesses relief from crushing costs, while reducing our deficit,” he said.
Rep. Pelosi also positioned the bill as a historic step toward comprehensive health care reform.
“This is a historic moment for our nation and families,” Rep. Pelosi said at a rally to introduce the bill. “For nearly a century, leaders of every party and political philosophy have fought for health insurance reform.”
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., chairman of the House Republican Conference, termed the Pelosi measure a “freight train of mandates, taxes and bureaucracy,” according to a press release posted on the committee’s website.
“This is a government takeover of health care in America,” Rep. Pence said. “As the American people dig into this, it will become more obvious that this is a massive new bureaucracy.”