House Passes Healthcare Reform Bill

The House of Representative on Saturday passed its version of the healthcare reform bill by a vote of 220-215, with 39 Democrats voting against the bill and one Republican, Representative Ahn “Joseph” Cao of Louisiana, voting for the bill.

While the House vote is an important milestone, what will be most important to shaping the final legislation is what the Senate is able to pass. This week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to unveil the Senate’s version of the bill, which is likely to include less generous subsidiaries for uninsured middle-income Americans to purchase health insurance in the new insurance exchanges, similar to the previous version of the bill put forth by Max Baucus and passed by his Senate Finance Committee.

While the House version of the bill would be very unlikely to pass the Senate, the eventual Senate version of the bill would, in all likelihood, pass the House, particularly since a more fiscally-conservative version of the bill would appeal to the Blue Dog Coalition of Democrats in the House, many of whom voted against the House version of the bill this past Saturday.