As President Barack Obama prepares to sign a transformative health care bill ushering in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in the nation’s history, Binghamton University will host a lecture highlighting the pros and cons of the reform.
House Democrats voted 219-212 late Sunday to send the landmark legislation to Obama. The 10-year, $938 billion bill would extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, reduce deficits and ban insurance company practices such as charging women more and denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.
“This is what change looks like,” Obama said in televised remarks that rang familiar to his 2008 campaign promise of “change we can believe in.”
A companion package with a series of changes sought by House Democrats to the larger bill, which already passed the Senate, was approved 220-211. The fix-it bill will now go to the Senate, where debate is expected to begin as early as Tuesday. Senate Democrats hope to approve it unchanged and send it directly to Obama, though Republicans intend to attempt parliamentary objections that could change the bill and require it to go back to the House.
The complicated two-step approval process for the legislation was made necessary because Senate Democrats lost their filibuster-proof supermajority in a special election in January.
GOP lawmakers attacked the legislation as everything from a government takeover to the beginning of totalitarianism, and none voted in favor. “Hell no!” Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, shouted in a fiery speech. “We have failed to listen to America and we have failed to reflect the will of our constituents.”
Thirty four Democrats also voted “no” on the Senate-passed bill.
BU is aiming to inform students, faculty and local residents of the difficulties of reforming health care, a topical issue that is especially relevant with the upcoming Senate vote.
Health economist Mark Pauly will present his lecture “Why is Health Care So Difficult to Reform?” at 3:30 p.m. Friday in the Anderson Center. The event will focus on the role of public option, the sustainability of individual insurance reform and employer mandates in regards to the health care reform.
The lecture is the first in a series endowed by alumnus Dr. Harold Cohen, class of ’59, and his wife Jo Cohen in honor of Peter Vukasin, dean emeritus of Harpur College from 1967 to 1974.
“Pauly was chosen because of [Harold’s] interest and also for the exposure of different ideas and scholarly works of visiting professors,” said Lisa Court, senior director of development for Harpur College of Arts and Sciences. “We hope to allow students to understand a complex issue and create scholarly discourse.”
The event, hosted by the Harpur College at BU, is free and open to the public. Though it comes after the bill officially passed through the House and Senate, the debate may not yet be over.
Pauly is the Bendheim professor of health care systems, business and public policy, insurance and risk management and economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
For more details on the health care reform see Page 13.
— Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.