It wasn't just her, of course. And there's a long way to go. But she got to bang the gavel and announce that a national health care reform bill passed the House, for the first time since Republican Teddy Roosevelt started pushing for one a hundred years ago. It's also probably the biggest piece of social legislation the House has passed since Medicare in 1965. It'll go down in the history books as a big night for the Speaker.
We don't know what the bill will look like by the time it gets through the Senate (if it does) and is then reworked by the Dr. Frankensteins on the reconciliation committee. Hopefully it'll have the House's public option but lose the Stup(id)ak Amendment.
But if it works like it's meant to, it'll ensure the profitability of private insurance companies by requiring millions more people to buy insurance, while preventing them from boosting their profits by denying coverage to the people who need it most. Like many businesses, they may find that they can make money by providing good service at a reasonable price. It's unfortunate that it took major legislation to make them understand that. The bill will reduce the deficit while saving lives, and that last part is the most important--if it prevents Americans from dying because they can't get coverage (and prevents them from going bankrupt because of unavoidable health issues) then it's a good thing.
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