Sen. Bernie Sanders Talks About Health Care

[TomCADem]

Source: WPTZ

Sanders said this bill is heading down the right path for Americans in need of health insurance. It will expand Medicare and put more money toward disease prevention. He also expects it will eventually lower prescriptions costs and expand mental health counseling.

" In America every year now some 45,000 people die because they don't get to a doctor when they should, and they don't have health insurance," Sanders said, "This bill is going to provide health insurance to 31 million more Americans."

But Sanders still would like to see a public option component to the bill. He said if people want private insurance that's fine, but they should have the ability to choose.

"What I would like to see strengthened in the bill is not only the public option component, which exists in the House," Sanders said, "It doesn't exist in the Senate. I would like to see a more progressive way of funding healthcare then what exists."

Read more: http://www.wptz.com/news/22056203/detail.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Hope he gets his wish.

[TheEuclideanOne]

4. But how does that work?

Can they just add it back in reconciliation? At risk of sounding ignorant, now that we have a Senate and House bill, my understanding is that somehow those bills are "brought together". Who votes for the final passage of the bill?

[ozymandius]

5. The House and Senate must vote on the same bill, same language, even identical punctuation.

But there are a number of things the House can do before reconciliation begins. This is a good synopsis of options from DailyKos:

• Agree to the Senate amendments to H.R. 3590, in which case they're done and the bill is ready for signature;

• Further amend H.R. 3590 (as amended by the Senate) and send it back to the Senate, with an insistence on its position and requesting a conference;

• Further amend H.R. 3590 (as amended by the Senate) and send it back to the Senate without further comment, letting the Senate decide to accept the House amendments and finish the bill, or alternatively insist on a conference;

• Simply disagree to the Senate amendments to H.R. 3590 and move immediately to go to conference on the two different versions of that bill, or;

• Do nothing right away on the floor, but instead begin informal negotiations on a package of amendments acceptable to both a majority in the House and 60 Senators.

Simply disagreeing with the Senate amendments to H.R. 3590 and immediately requesting a conference, creates some interesting issues, because in that case the House would be asking for a conference to resolve the differences between the Senate version of the health insurance reform bill that we've all been watching and the original House version of H.R. 3590, which was a completely different bill.

And yes, the reconciled bill can restore what was lost in the Senate's deliberations. The reconciled bill must pass an initial vote, probably along party lines, before it reaches each legislative chamber.

[Bicoastal]

2. I've said it before and I'll say it again...

...Bernie isn't stupid. He knows that this bill is flawed, but he also sees that it's the best first step in the right direction our country is ready to make right now.

[regnaD kciN]

3. But...but...but...

...isn't the bill eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil, Obama eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil, and anyone who votes for it eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil?

:sarcasm: